Horses
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I suppose we were considered to be heartless little brats but really we had a lot of feeling. One of the things we hated was to see a horse killed. The streets were cobbled and as well as being hard-wearing the cobbles were spaced to enable the horses, shoes to get a grip, so that they could pull the heavy loads up from the docks. Many of the streets had a steep incline and it would be necessary for a lead horse to be hitched to the front to help pull the load. These were magnificent animals of tremendous strength (shire horses). It was common to see a load being pulled up a steep hill by a team of three horses. During winter the cobbles would be icy and the ground frozen; the horses would struggle to get a grip and a horse whose shoes were worn would fall to the ground bringing down the other horses. There would be chaos; the heavy loads would start to roll back dragging the other horses with them. The carter would act as quickly as he could to apply the chocks (this was a breaking system which would halt the load). Very often the horse?s sides would be skinned, but the worst was when a horse broke its leg in the fall; the poor creature would writhe on the ground making valiant efforts to regain its footing, it was a horrible sight. Eventually a vetinary surgeon would arrive on the scene and put the horse out of its suffering with a humane killer. The horse would be detached from the team and a cart known as the knacker?s cart would arrive and take the dead horse away. When this sort of accident occurred the carter would be very distressed; Liverpool carters and their horses were inseparable, the horse always came first, and no matter how late a carter worked he would always brush, clean, feed and water his horse before he bedded it down in a clean stable; the horse was the carter?s pride. To see the May Day Parade of the Liverpool carters was a spectacle; hundreds of horses would be groomed and decorated in a most colourful manner. Their tails and manes would be combed and plaited, the carts and drays would be cleaned and painted in an attempt to win the premier award, and all the horses would have their own name on a plaque above the stable. The passing of the horse altered life a great deal.
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