058 - Giraffe

058 - Giraffe, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

When I was a child I had a hobby horse, rather tired and secondhand, which given the lack of local horse riding in my village in the 1960s was a rather pointless toy, or so it seemed. If a squire had still been living in the big house and regularly mounted, or had I seen the local hunt from close quarters, the story may have been different. Hobby horses are a child's version of a real world wood and sackcloth scary horse, sometimes known as a 'hooden horse' that in earlier times had been used for traditional festivities, and reputedly a fearsome object with a large and clacking mouth. By my time, the only hooden horse I know was a dusty exhibit in Folkestone museum.

Other children from other backgrounds and times have found hobby horses a source of great pleasure, although I wonder how many are bought because of a soft spot for society's dream time of a yesteryear that never really existed, but for me running around with a stick between my legs was akin to you doing the same with a button in your pocket. What is or was the point? A plastic horse and cart was more fun, or a tractor with leaky batteries, or even a story book about a woman who polished a blackbird and painted his beak gold.

Horses arrived in my life at a much later, adult period, when I learnt to ride inside a ring and jump over small fences. Part of the pleasure was doing it together with people who I had never met before and who I would never meet again, and yet for a few months our paths ran side by side. While I could not be described as a confident horseperson, I feel I know the kind of people who are and how they view the world to some extent.

As to giraffes, I have no idea if anyone has ever ridden one, although I would be more surprised to learn that no one had than that someone had, but here I can ride one in my imagination. This is an important concept, although I am sure many people would regard it as childish, but here I can involve both my mind and body in a task I lack either the means or the skill to carry out in reality.