I’ve decided to learn to ride a horse as I suspect it will be a good means of transport in the future when petrol is too expensive for Ms Average to afford to run a car.

I thought it would be good to accompany our young daughter but at six, she has decided she is too scared of being on a (tiny) pony and will try again next year. It’s not a nasty skill to learn – as soon as I’d clambered up onto poor 20 year old Verdi’s back we set off on a woodland hack through masses of wild garlic and alongside a pretty little babbling brook. It was a strange sensation having to trust that the animal would not slip into the stream and topple me off but we made it back to the riding school in one piece and then began to learn how to trot. A very way to spend a Saturday lunchtime in the spring sunshine.