Mexborough and Swinton May 12, 1939

What a “‘Beauty”

Wombwell Mare That Started in Circus

A Pretty Pair

There is a tradition that to touch a sailor’s collar or a piebald foal is lucky. That is perhaps the reason why so many people have visited Poplar’s Farm, Park Street, Wombwell, in the past few days to look at and to stroke the nose of “Beauty,” daughter of Biddy.” “Beauty ” is a rarity among horses, as was her mother. She is a perfect brown and white piebald and very unusual because she was born as such.

Experienced horsemen know that foals are almost invariably born a different colour from what they become subsequently. A grey, for example, starts black, becomes dappled in youth and finally loses all its black markings. That perhaps explains why a piebald foal is ” lucky,” like a three-leaved clover. ” Biddy ” was also a piebald at birth and has kept her colour. ” Beauty ” has certainly not taken after her father, who is a brown shire horse.

Wombwell people who see ” Biddy ” going quietly about Wombwell streets with a milk van and admire her for her sleek coat, well fettled appearance and unusual colouring may be interested to know that she is a mare with a history. ” Biddy ” was born to the circus and the early part of her life was spent in the ” ring.” She belonged to Barrett’s circus, well known in this part of the country and at the seaside places in the North. ” Biddy’s ” present owner, Mr. Harry Charlesworth, usually buys horses with circus experience because they have more than the average intelligence, are tractable with women and children and are safer than most horses when they have to be left in the street.

Mr. Barrett, who is a personal friend of Mr. Charlesworth, chose circus life when there were many other careers  open to him and served his apprenticeship with Sanger’s. He now lives in retirement at Little Ouseburn, York, but still deals in horses. ” Biddy ” belonged to his circus stock, as also did the two greys which have come into Mr. Charlesworth’s possession.

Mr. Charlesworth told a representative of this paper that he had had some very knowing horses in his time, but he had no hesitation in saying that ” Biddy ” was the most intelligent of the lot. Like all circus horses, she has a sweet tooth and likes women best because they humour her. She has one particular friend in Park Street, whose house she will never pass without receiving a toffee or a lump of sugar. That’s how she was trained in the first place. Mr. Charlesworth can work her in the fields or in the street, with the merest whisper or a click of his fingers. She is as near “human ” as horseflesh can be.

Security For Loan

For two or three years after she was broken, “Biddy ” travelled with a circus in the South of England, and her original owner left her with Mr. Barrett as security for a £50 loan, which was never redeemed. ”

When Mr. Barrett rang me up on the telephone and said he had a mare he wanted me to have,” said Mr. Charlesworth, “I told him to send it along, knowing it would be a good one. I had never even seen it.” As horses go, ” Biddy ” is absolutely perfect, and the best Mr. Charlesworth can hope for of “Beauty ” is that she will be as good as her mother.

Mr. Charlesworth says circus horses are unequalled for the milk business because intelligence is hereditary among them and the circus people always go to a lot of trouble with them.