Edinburgh locals were left puzzled after encountering a large horse tied to a lamppost outside Greggs.
Archie Thorburn, 35, owns a roofing business and joked that his five-year-old Cob horse, Prince, is quickly becoming a bit of a local celebrity after being spotted at the bakers today, Saturday December 21 at around 8am.
Prince was tied up outside a cafe while Archie grabbed his morning coffee from Gregg’s on Portobello High Street when one local grabbed a picture of the animal.
Archie explained how he took the horse for a morning stroll after becoming concerned that he hadn’t been spending as much time with Prince as he would like recently.
He said: “I’m a roofing contractor based in Portobello and have been very busy of late. I felt I haven’t seen my nearly Prince as much as I would like.
“This morning’s sightings were shortly after I was out mucking the stall out, filling his haynets and just spending time with him. I thought why not? I’ll take him out a wee walk whilst I nip along to grab my morning coffee.
“I tethered him to the lamppost whilst I nipped into Greggs for my coffee before walking him back along the road to pop him back in the stall again.
“He’s quite a well known face in Porty now. We have a little exercise cart that my young daughters and I take him out on along the promenade quite frequently. Many people love seeing him out and about, taking photos and giving him lots of love and attention.
“He spends time between grazing in a field near Musselburgh and we are very blessed to have a single stall stable in our back yard at home so I decided it’s a win win situation. He comes home for bit, I get to spend more time with him over the Christmas period and he’s here ready to go out and around Porty.
“I arranged with the community about a week ago to dress him up as a reindeer so that Santa and his Elves can make an appearance on Christmas Eve to hand out sweeties to anyone we see. So he will be out and about again on Tuesday.
“The locals when they first saw him were a tad surprised to see a horse in Porty but they honestly love him, take photos with him and clap and cuddle him. He loves the attention too. I get messaged and tagged in photos often.”
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