1979

Like all thoroughbred's horses, Horse was born on January 1st of this year. He then made his debut on May Day of 1979, dancing on Castle Hill, Bristol, at sunrise, 5.42 am. Bristol Morris have danced on this spot (or so they told him) since Roman times. If you look carefully at the picture below you may be able to recognise some of the Bristol Morris Men of the time! No, no, they are not dressed in Roman togas!
Bristol MM on Castle Hill in 1980
Can you identify any of Bristol MM? They had hair then. The picture was taken on Castle Hill in 1980 - before the trees grew - unfortunately we don't have a picture of Horse from 1979!
The first scholorly discussion of the behaviour of our hero is in Rob Elliott's seminal text on the history of the Silurian Morris Men: "DON'T BLAME ME I'M ONLY THE TRIANGLE PLAYER", Square One Publications, Sansome Place, Worcester, 1991. ISBN: 1 872017 50 9).. This extensive quote also portrays the first appearance of Horse which was at the 1979 Isle of Wight Ring Meeting. He was first seen rising from the top of an open-top bus. "After breakfast on the Saturday morning we had to board coaches for a day tour of dancing at various spots around the island. The embarkation point was some distance from our overnight accomodation, so a couple of hundred Morris men were milling about like a load of sheep, and it was Willy who galvanised the musicians into playing while we all marched off, or shambled off even, to the meeting place. The only thing that stopped him was the Bristol Horse .... continued.