PORTER AND HORSES

Evening Star, Issue 21992, 30 March 1935, Page 9

PORTER AND HORSES

PERSUADER OF PADDINGTON

There is a foreman porter at Paddington Station, London, who specialises in persuading frightened horses to travel by rail, says the ‘ Daily Mail.’ Ho is Mr “ Nobby ” Way, whom many call “the uncrowned king of horseflesh.”

He has been coaxing tho finest racehorses, the wdldest Argentine mules, and the most objectionable of carthorses into railway vans for thirtyfivo_ years, and on a recent day he achieved another remarkable triumph. Six porters had tried in vain for three hours to entice a wild, unbroken polo pony from South America into a train for Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire. The train left without it.

Then Mr Way came on duty. Gently he took the animal’s head, walked him three times round the station, whispering something in his ear, and within three minutes the animal was safely packed into the van.

Since tho end of last century Mr Way has handled tens of thousands of horses, and a high official of the station says that no horse has ever beaten him yet. “ I try to mesmerise the horse,” said Mr Way, “ A horse is as sensible as you or I. You have got to think out a way of tricking him. “If he has been in a railway box before and remembers hitting his head on the door—through lack of care on the part of the porter—l simply lead him round and round until lie forgets that ho is going into the van until he finds himself there.

“ When the war broke out in 1914, I worked from 10 o’clock in the morning on the first day until 4 p.m. the next day piling mules into vans. It was nothing for me to work fourteen hours a day during the war. • “ The must savage animals of all that I have handled were the Argentine mules, the sort that can kick a gnat’s eye out.” _ The awkward pony from the Argentine and the porters trj’ing to get him into his box drew an audience of scores of delighted schoolboys. Women shouted advice, while supplies of carrots and sugar were Obtained from the refreshment room as bait.