They liked me, the horses, straightaway

‘This day we were going to let the horses go. They’d been working for a while and it was their turn to have a spell. Old Alf Turner came down there watching the blokes tying their horses’ legs up. And he seen me get my horse and bring him up – just drop the reins on the ground and the horse waiting down there while I went and got the hammer and the chisel and the rasp to just pull the shoe off.

The...