‘You’ve got your essay on your back, then?’ said the stable yard owner as I headed out with Darcy on our morning hack.

I have taken to wearing a hi-visibility vest even though I swore I would never join the Day-Glo brigade: large women on fat cobs plodding very slowly down the road in so much protective gear they look like they are going to fight the Taliban, not walk round the woods slower than a snail.