Once upon a time there lived a beautiful red horse. It was a rare and wonderful horse. It lived on a farm in Warwickshire with some gleaming white horses. They were the best of friends. Day by day they galloped happily by each others’ side.
One day when the horses were sitting in the shade, because it was too hot to go and play, a strange old crooked man with a tangled beard walked by. The man knocked on the gnarled farmhouse door and it was instantly answered. “I’m thinking about buying those white horses of yours” boomed the old man to the farmer holding out a ragged purse full of money. “I can’t sell my horses” exclaimed the farmer astonished. “Nobody’s ever dared to ask me before”. Immediately the old man fllung himself into a bad temper. In his rage he clicked his fingers and the red horse vanished and in its place was a colossal picture of a red horse which lay in the hills.
Then the old man took the white horses to his house in Wiltshire. The farmer tried to stop him, but his legs couldn’t keep up as the other man was too fast. The white horses did not enjoy living with the old man who had stolen them. He did not treat them well and made them plough the hills of Wiltshire each day. They missed the farmer and their friend the red horse.
Each day they were very naughty in the hope that the old man would set them free. They would try and toss the old man off their backs and would kick and bite. But instead of letting them free, the angry old man also turned the white horses into large chalky pictures in the hillsides. Secretly each night the pictures of the red and white horses came alive again and they would go in search for one another in vain.
One night the red horse went on his nightly search for his friends and mysteriously disappeared along the way. It is said that he drank from an enchanted stream and was whisked away into a different world where it lived in peace and harmony amongst the other creatures. The white horses remain in the hills of Wiltshire. Every night they come alive in search of their friend the red horse and always wonder what happened to him