wildlife in london, too

just when you think you've said enough about animals for the moment rike manages to find yet another one that grabs our attention

this time it's pony thomas who lives right around our corner in wickham mews

together with his little falabella friend billy and two other ponies, stuart and taylor, there are no less than four horses in our street - in the middle of london

well - horses are for riding and rike's high skills in pester power mean that she's actually allowed to ride thomas today (though not billy as much as she'd like to)

a strange sight as catherine leads thomas through the heavy traffic on lewisham way to the little paddock in lucas street - where we immediately have a few spectators

thomas gets lunged for a bit - he really is a cart horse we learn and you may have seen his owners driving with him through brockley

here they give rike a hand and at the same time tell us a bit about the old days when this area was still part of a large farm with horses everywhere. now this little piece of green belongs to br and they can turn out their ponies here

the saddle is a bit of a joke but that won't stop rike... thomas doesn't do the dreaded rearing so rike takes heart and

ready?

off they go...

perfectly normal thing to do in the middle of town on a saturday afternoon, guys