Saturday, April 13, 2013

On the naughty step

While we were in London, on the first day, I wandered down a side street looking for a short cut to the riverside and went past a cop on a horse, on the way back I stopped to ask him a quick question and the horse turned his head to give me a big curious horsey hello!

Turned out the horse (sweet beast) was on the naughty step!  ( I found this particularly amusing as there was a step on the boat that the kids had to sit on if their behaviour had been particularly appalling, along the lines of, do that again and you'll have to sit on the step.

I didn't know that happened to horses, but it seems it does!

He had, apparently been very very bad.  I can't, personally, imagine what a police horse could do that would be all that bad outside of kicking random pedestrians, but seems their standards are rather higher than mine

Seems that, possibly as he is a young horse, he isn't very good at standing still (nor am I) so he was standing on this side street for half an hour.  Hence the naughty step.

When the Man and Youngest appeared he moved one forefoot a step forward.  Hope we didn't doom him to another half hour of standing!

He was a sweety and the cop sounded pretty amused.  He didn't seem overly bothered either.

It'd have to be a pretty big step, no?  Wouldn't fit on the one on the boat, that's for sure.

3 comments:

J.G. said...

If he is young and curious, standing still is probably as much of a trial as it would be for any youngster. And yes, I am picturing a horse on a boat now - quite an image!

Anonymous said...

Never ever heard of the naughty step before. That's pretty amusing. I knew about putting a misbehaving child in the corner, where they'd have to stand (and no one puts Baby in the corner :p ) until the punishment is lifted, but nothing about a naughty step...

oreneta said...

JG, I imagine it was a bit of a trial for him, and he is a police horse so his behaviour does have to be impecable, he was a sweety though.

I have heard of the naughty step as a phrase before, though it is very British and I have never used it till this moment. That said, on the boat I used it for lack of other options. The girls had to share a bed, and sometimes started bickering at night, so one would have to be removed so things could settle down again, and once the Man and I were in bed, there wasn't really anywhere else to go (small boat!)......nobody puts kids in a corner anymore that I have heard of.