Horses on the Common

Horses on the Common, you've got to watch them.

There is a Common near our house which we have to walk past to get to school. There are a whole load of horses on it. Some people feed them on the way to school, like the dinner lady who throws across the fence all the veg which hasn't been eaten.

The horses seem to know what time school starts or finishes because they are always standing by the fence just before the time inspite of the fact they have a massive Common to run about on. There is another school at the opposite of the Common which has different starting and finishing times and at the right time the horses switch sides of the Common and stand by the fence at that school.

You've got to be careful if you are carrying a bag across the Common because the horses assume you have food in it. Once my Mum was walking the dogs on the Common and had her bag with her, felt breathing down her neck and turned to see a big horse following her. She screamed and made for the fence while Holly, Jack and me stood on the right side of the fence laughing.

The horses have returned to the wild and run about like a herd. Suddenly one will start running and the rest of them follow. My Mum tries to avoid them if possible but once spent quite some time in a thicket while the horses thundered past.

Once one jumped over the fence and ran down the path and even landed up in the school playground until a lady with experience of horses managed to calm it and put a rope round it and take it back. Some have also been seen grazing on the roundabout.