Hang up the red and white bunting in your stable yard — it’s St George’s Day (23 April)!
St George is not only the patron saint of England but also of horses, riders and saddlers.
And his day will be celebrated in patriotic style by London Livery Company The Worshipful Company of Saddlers.
A spokesman for the WCS said: “We hold our quarterly court meeting as close as possible to St George’s Day and all our members wear a red rose.”
The feast day means a day off for horses in Finland, Latvia and Estonia, where riding or driving a horse today means loss of your luck for the year.
And horses are given their yearly swim then taken to church and blessed in a number of Slavic countries, to improve their beauty and stamina.
One reason suggested why George is patron of the neddies is the fact he is commonly portrayed riding a white horse.
But seeing as he is also the saint for soldiers and archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and fieldworkers, butchers and those suffering from leprosy, plague and syphilis, not to mention Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Ethiopia, Portugal, Germany and Greece, he has to be the busiest patron around.
