When You See A Man With A Horse, Just Keep Your Head Down.

So I admit, I’m from a small village in Devon and, by and large, haven't encountered many gypsies. I realise I may be being a little prejudice here and must outline that I am talking about the stereotypical angry, vicious gypsies that are portrayed in the Daily Mail and the Sun. However I thought everybody knew not to start fights or conflicts with Gypsies as they have a reputation for being ruthless and vast in numbers...I was wrong.
Recently I have been "establishing a drinking team" with a lad on my floor who is genuinely a good guy but must have missed the life lesson and what to do when confronted with and angry gypsies.
Two nights ago myself and a few other lads were getting a bit drunk, on an empty stomach when will we learn?, watching the football at a pub. All was going swimmingly with no hint of trouble or animosity and, after a swift meal, we returned to carry on the session in my room.
Many hours of binge drinking and FIFA 10 later, we inevitably began stumbling into Southampton town. Now it’s important to comment here that we all tend to be from small towns and have never seen a large family of gypsies walking a small horse up a high street, Sunday however we were treated to this spectacle.
Alarm bells were ringing in our heads, these people aren’t the sort you want to cross when you've been in the city for all of two weeks and so, after gingerly patting the horse and minding our P's and Q's, we all proceeded back to the pub that we watched the football in many hours before, for some cheap beers. We all did, that is, apart from my friend.
Before we knew what was going on we were confronted by a member of the bar staff saying that one of our party had punched a gypsy and they were hiding him in the back of the pub. One of the bar ladies even pitched in with "they'll kill him and won't even care."
Now having only known this lad for a couple of weeks I even surprised myself when I stormed out of the pub round the back to collect what was a very shaken, yet relieved young man.
After further discussion with the Bar staff we were encouraged to head back home and lay low for a couple of hours as my mate wasn't going to be the most popular person in Southampton that night and so, whilst walking him home I got the full story.
He was stroking the horse when the handler punched it in the head; a little shocked, my friend apparently told the handler that there was no need for that, ethical yet foolish. Unsurprisingly the handler reacted badly and aggressively, immediately squaring up to my friend, who, in another genius move, gave the handler a punch in the face.
After a whirlwind of abuse and a certain amount of walking away my friend was bundled into the pub and hid by the manager who had witnessed the scuffle and realised that my friend was in some serious danger, before releasing him out the back entrance, leaving me to pick up the pieces.

In hindsight my friend acted in a very ethical way and you have to admire his bravery in sticking up for the horse but it was unbelievably stupid to try and start a fight with a group of gypsies and incredibly lucky to escape the situation without so much as a scratch. I think however it is a very good lesson to learn and pass on, don't start fights with gypsies it's never a good idea.