Hoping in vain for some horse sense!

Mar 4 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Ex-pat GRAHAM DENBY continues his tales as he and wife Ruth forge a new life in Portugal. Today: Grooming the horses

QUITE literally the last thing I picked up before I set off in my pickup to Portugal was a set of hair clippers.

I remember it because I bought them at Paddock Triangle filling station, £2.99 with my fill of petrol. I mean, how can a Tyke refuse that price?

For quite some time I’d been a close-cut number two in winter and an even closer-cut number one in summer, so with this kit I thought our lass could sort my coiffurial requirements quite adequately.

The refuelling was also significant because the Ranger I had bought on T’internet a couple of weeks previously was bang on except the fuel gauge didn’t work!

I was told it would go 250 miles maximum, 200 to be safe, and safe I would be!

I just had to remember to zero the odometer... it is an American motor, you see!

Anyway, the clippers have proved to be fine if not spectacular, worth the £2.99 you might say.

The reason for mentioning it is that out here the horses have to be clipped in autumn if they are going to do some work, otherwise they sweat up a storm, as their coats get thicker.

The clippers our lass got for this job are majestic, the Rolls-Royce of clippers, with a motor bigger than our vac!