I very much doubt that more horses are bred than ever
before the car and the train they were the sole sourse of travel [on land]
i am a horse lover and when i started to work at the pit, the vast majority of my training involved horses and caring for them, of course there were erm not nice people down the pits but in your street there will be morons who kick dogs and cats, i never ever saw anyone mistreat a horse down the pit…
Just being in a pit is ill treatment of horses and for humans too.
The difference being is that humans had a choice the ponies didn’t .
Most ponies developed like humans respiratory diseases
Apart from anything else it’s wicked to put a living creature man or beast down a pit .
I come from a family of coal miners my own grandfather was severely injured in the pit .
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thanks for that Muddy, how can i save it?..lol
when i was fourteen [in Scotland, low seams] my mate who was two years older got a job at the pit and had to go away to be trained, he went to a place i think it was called Darvel, for a few weeks, it seemed a long time in those days [the fifties] anyway when he came home i went to see him, i asked when did he actually start as a miner and he told me…“I go to the pit on monday to be measured” “measured for what?” “to be measured for a harness as the seam is too low for the ponies and us lads have to pull the tubs out”
Crabby withdraws an crosses ‘miner’ off his list of possible careers…
they were working an 18" seam… mean while in Doncaster the pit i worked at had an 8’ foot seam and the pit farthst south in Doncaster the village was called ‘Rossington’ and the main seam there was 12’ foot thick, and that seam goes all the was drom Doncaster under the north sea…
P.S. Muddy my grand mother worked down the pit at 8 years old, opening the airdoors to allow ‘unmanned’ ponies pulling tubs thru the doors… and we whinge about our internet connection…mmmm
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I managed to download it Muddy, and i read it, its a good read and brought back many memories,
the two main horses i worked with were ‘Star’ who was a star and ‘Snow’ who wasnt a star…lol
thanks again, i will send it to my old marra who lives in the north east
You’re welcome 