Tom Kinsey had driven a horse and cart for the Coop for quite some time but one day he was too ill to go to work so Reg was taken away from his job in one of the shops to take Tom’s place. His first job was to deliver in Pontyrhyl and Tylagwyn. He put the goods in the cart and drove up Oxford Street.
When he got to Pontycymer Square he went to turn left but the horse quickly turned right and trotted through the archway into the Ffaldau Arms yard where he stopped. Reg was very puzzled and had to work hard to get a neighing horse back through the archway and across the square. He started to go down Bridgend Road when the horse stopped outside the Royal Hotel. When Reg asked him to walk on he snorted and looked round at Reg, very puzzled. Eventually, very slowly, he went down the street, but when he got to the hill going into Pontyrhyl he quickened up but again at the bottom of the hill turned right and came to a sudden stop outside the Braich-y-Cymer Hotel. Reg was getting rather fed up by now and was shout- ing and urging the horse on, while the horse was snorting and was now in quite a bad mood, but he very reluctantly and slowly walked on. Reg eventually delivered the goods with the horse refusing to go any faster than a slow walk, and when he got back to the shop, “Does this horse deliver to the pubs?” he asked his colleagues. They all started to laugh and then he was told, “That’s old Tom’s horse. Tom likes a drink and stops at the pubs to have a quick pint while the horse has a rest and a drink of water outside so he is used to stopping at the local pubs. The poor old thing has not worked so hard as he has today for a long time- you can’t blame him for being upset! Tom and the horse have an understanding and are well suited to each other.”
Needless to say there was a very happy horse when Tom walked into the stable the next morning.