It looks harmless enough. To the uninitiated, it’s nothing more sinister than a big cuddly toy on rockers. It’s not cute though and that maniacal grin should have been a clue.
The rocking horse was acquired from a friend whose child has grown too big for it. SP snuck it home and left it in the lounge as a surprise. None of us could have predicted just how much of a surprise…
FP and I found it, sitting innocently in front of the fire, looking like, well, a miniature rocking horse that would be just the right size for FP.
“Mummy lift you on,” instructed FP. I plonked her into the saddle and FP nearly jumped straight off again.
The horse spoke.
It said, in loud, electronic tones, “NEIGH!” and proceeded to make sounds of galloping hooves.
FP was horrified. She pulled her arms protectively up to her body and sat rigid with fright.
I, recovering from my own fright, attempted to pacify FP, laughing it off and encouraging FP to rock. She rocked, reluctantly, but only if mummy held the handlebars.
All was quiet. It began to be fun. FP relaxed and started to enjoy rocking. Mummy let go of the handlebars.
“NEIGH!” said the horse unexpectedly again.
This time, FP actually did jump right off the horse and clung to me, shaking and crying.
“It’s a scary ‘orse,” she sobbed. “You’re frightened. You’re cried.”
SP took the batteries out but we still haven’t been able to persuade FP to go anywhere near the thing again. Even walking into the same room is a challenge.
“You’ll have to walk past the scary ‘orse,” she says, holding onto my leg.
“It is a scary horse,” I agreed. I should have been able to predict that from the demonic grin. What’s that about looking a gift horse in the mouth?
Rachel Pattisson is a mummy blogger whose blog, Really Rachel, was intended to be about All Sorts Of Things and turned out to be mostly about her children. Well, they are infinitely bloggable, of course(!)
In between mummying and blogging, Rachel is a freelance writer with a love of all things wordy. You can follow me on Twitter, ask me to do some writing for you, view the original post about the scary horse or read more from Really Rachel. Enjoy!
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