Bobby Rab’s horse was called Jock

Dec 4 2009 by Edwin Lawrence, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

AYR businessman Forbes Robertson is overwhelmed by the response he’s had from Ayrshire Post readers to a letter in the paper.

Forbes posed a question about Ayr’s last working carter and cart horse.

Forbes has fond boyhood memories from the early 1960s of carter ‘Bobby Rab’.

In his young days, Forbes lived in Craigie and walked to Holmston Primary.

And he regularly spoke to Bobby Rab.

But Forbes couldn’t remember the name of the cart horse, despite loads of suggestions.

Former DJ Forbes here gives the countdown on suggestions for the horse’s name:

“At number 10, Roman Warrior, a real outsider, but a former winner of Ayr Gold Cup.

“Number 9, Hercules – Steptoe and Son’s nag, but not Bobby Rab’s.

“Coming in at 8, Trigger – famed as Roy Rogers’ four-legged friend, and the horse who pulled Ernie’s Fastest Milk Cart in the West.

“At number 7, Silver, who was actually the Lone Ranger’s magnificent steed.

“At 6, we have Scout, the horse ridden by Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s Indian sidekick.

“The number 5 choice is Mr Ed, TV talking horse from the 1960s.

“Number 4 is another TV and film horse, Black Beauty; and at number 3 is mythological flying horse Pegasus.

“At number 2 we have 1981 Derby winner Shergar, kidnapped at gunpoint from stud in Ireland two years later and never seen again.

“But at number 1 we have the real name of Bobby Rab’s cart horse – Jock.”

Forbes added: “The first correct answer came from John McConnell from Ayr.

“And he should know, as his family owned the firm of Peter Duncan and Sons, where Bobby Rab worked.

“John has also told me that Bobby Rab died in March, 1974, at the age of 83.

“Jock the horse spent his retirement years at the other Craigie – Craigie village, near Kilmarnock.”

Another Post reader has provided us with a picture of Bobby Rab and Jock.

She is Cora Armstrong, 68, of Bruce Crescent.

Cora said: “I would be about 22 when this was taken in 1963 or 1964 in Holmston Road, where I then lived.”

Cora recalled: “Going further back to my childhood, I remember regularly going over to the York Street area to see the horses used by milkmen and other businesses.”