AS part of his journey around Devon, the War Horse puppet Joey made a stop at a farm in Hatherleigh to meet some real horses.

Some years ago Michael Morpurgo and his wife Clare visited Lower Upcott Farm with two National Theatre staff to observe Ben May's Shire horses in harness at work with the intention of adapting his novel to a stage show.

During Joey's visit to Devon last week he stopped off at Lower Upcott Farm to meet Ben May's Shire horses.

Ben said:?'We were thrilled and keen to see how our working horses would react to such a convincing replication of their persona and gesture.'

Ben began by quietly working the geldings, Tom and another Joey, who were chain harrowing the hay meadow.

The harrows were removed and the horses were walked towards the centre of the hay meadow.

Slowly the War Horse Joey moved into sight of Ben's horses.

Ben gently eased the geldings towards the puppet and they showed quizzical interest in their new field mate.

As with Joey's stage performance the puppet displayed a convincing array of horse gestures and idiosyncrasies which created a sense of curiosity with the Shires Joey and Tom.

Finally the three 'horses' came face to face. They greeted with nostril contact and after a brief and friendly exchange, it was evident the horses had an understanding that the pretender was not a real horse. The meeting was filmed by BBC Countryfile.