Boris the riot horse…
It’s amazing what you can find out about your own photographs that you didn’t know! A lady came into my exhibition ‘riots revisited’ and as she looked around she said ‘that’s a great picture of Boris.’ Now I immediately thought she meant Boris Johnson, who doesn’t feature in my exhibition of riot pictures. So I slightly awkwardly asked her what she meant. She replied that she was talking about my picture of Boris the horse, the Met police force’s white horse that lead the charge in Tottenham on the first day of the riots:
White horse Boris, who lead the charge during the Tottenham riot.
I had no idea that this horse was called Boris, it was great to finally put a name to the face! Furthermore, it turns out that Boris has won an award for his bravery on that night – he worked a 26 hour shift on that first day and continued to work every day of the riots:http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2012/03/104.shtml
So there we have it, 18 months after the riots and I have been introduced to the story of Boris, the white wonder-horse who I witnessed fearlessly charge through the burning streets and chaos.
This picture and more are on display at the Strand Gallery in London in my exhibition ‘The Riots Revisited’ until Feb 10th. More details here:
http://www.lewiswhyld.com/riots_exhibition/
WAIT! Stop press!! Turns out I’ve photographed Boris the horse at another event, seems he escorted Wills and Kate from that low-key event we call the Royal Wedding! Wow, Boris really is a national treasure!
