May 28th 1987

Whilst clearing out the loft area of all that stuff, you know the type, the stuff we accumulate like a thumping great drag net we haul from one place to another, I found something I had been hunting for, a rosette.

I have a few from those halcyon days of riding, but this one pre-dates them all because this acknowledges the day I cracked my spine in a rather horrific riding accident.

I was 34 years old, in the prime of my life and recently married. I had bought my first property and was having a great time; everything was happy, bubbly and so much fun.......until that day.

Sadly, I've paid for not speaking up about the horse I was riding and how I didn't get on with her for the remainder of my life.

Amazing and sobering how one seemingly trivial action can have a lasting effect. All I had to do was ask the instructor for a swap of horses and the person riding the one I preferred would have willingly swapped.

Ironically she disliked the mount she'd been allocated and ended up in hospital with ruptured groin muscles.

Not a good day.