Monday 7 July: I’ve got stirrups!

If you have to stay at Fox Lynch – if the pub is full and you’re really desperate – for goodness sake take ear plugs, because the dogs barked all night long. Three terriers yelling all through the night. Either the owner couldn’t hear them, or he’s used to the racket. Either way, we didn’t get much sleep. The uncheery face of the owner didn’t do much to raise our spirits, although breakfast was quite good.

The great news – for me, anyway – was that our support crew had arrived last night with my stirrups. Karen’s parents John and Joyce, had collected them from my house and brought to us in Ogbourne, along with our overnight stuff and dry clothes. This meant that we could do more than just walk today, which was lucky as we had about 13 miles to cover.

Both the girls looked like they hadn’t had much sleep, the rain was falling and the weather forecast didn’t look good. But we walked up the hill away from Ogbourne and as we reached the Ridgeway, the wind blew the clouds over us and the rain cleared. From the height of the Ridgeway, we looked back at when we’d ridden the previous day – a great sight to see.

We found lanes and tracks to trot along, to cover more ground, reaching our second ancient fort at Liddington. Then we dropped down off the Ridgeway to reach our first stretch of road. We crossed the M4 – a wide bridge with traffic thundering underneath. Bee was more worried by the grill on the road, but seemed happier being led across. I really didn’t mind (I had stirrups and knew I could easily get back on!) and it was her first motorway. Soon after both Karen and I spotted a map case in the verge – one of the ones that serious walkers wear round their necks. Always one to snap up a freebie, I hopped off again (did I tell you that I had stirrups?!) and gave the case a good home, around my neck.

Our ride took us past stands of ancient beech trees and woodland that has been there since our ancestors started to use the Ridgeway. We past Wayland Smithy, but you can’t ride in, so we just stood outside and looked for a while. We’ll come back some day on foot.

After 2½ hours of riding we got off to walk for a while to stretch our legs and let the horses stretch. Lunch was eaten on the ground today, with time for the girls to graze.

To the south the clouds were scudding past us; to the north the clouds were dropping their rain onto the valleys. Riding along the Ridgeway meant that we stayed in the sun and stayed dry.

We rode out of Wiltshire and into Oxfordshire. All too soon we turned off the Ridegeway and followed a grassy track to Down Barn Farm. This is the home of Penny Reid and her horses, beef cattle, sheep, Tamworth pigs, chickens, house cow, Oliver the cat and Hilda the dog. There was a lovely field for the girls, with stunning, uninterrupted views to the south. Even though we arrived around 3pm, we put the girls rugs on and the settled onto the sofas in the sitting room. Just in time for the most amazing thunder storm. We watched the forked lightening on the hill and listened to the rain and then hail, as the thunder crashed over head. How lovely to be in such a warm, dry, friendly home.

Penny had us topping and tailing the gooseberries, before serving us the most wonderful meal of soup, home grown organic beef, gooseberry crumble and home made clotted cream. What a lovely end to a great day. And comfortable beds too!