About me and my journey.

It is just a year until I will set off to spend the rest of my life journeying. I plan to begin by visiting the "four corners" of Britain. More about these in the next post.

I'm an Englishwoman, approaching 60 and single, with - as my late parents would have said, accompanied by a regretful shake of the head, "nothing to fall back on".

That's not strictly true. While I don't have the pension, husband and the cosy house which they, and most of my peers, valued and still value above all else, I do have my wits about me, a wide experience of the world and a still-insatiable curiousity and wanderlust. I also have an abiding love of animals, especially beasts of burden, and a niggling conscience which is a bit green in colour.

I currently live and work in Australia, and last October I went on the most wonderful holiday of my life - a 10-day unsupported camel trek in the Central Australian Desert. This served to solidify the nebulous idea I have had for some time about using my retirement - when I will be due some tiny amount of pension for the few years I have worked in the UK's NHS - to travel around Britain and Europe on horseback. I've ridden horse since I was very, very small; horses were my first love, and due to my ineptitude at relationships, it seems they are to be my last love. Perhaps I am merely going to live every little girls' dream - in my second childhood!

I've done a couple of horse and donkey treks of several days' duration on the Bicentennial National Trail here in Australia, as well as the camel trek, and in the UK I was a keen long-distance rider. I also took a couple of holidays in the UK with my driving pony and little cart, my dog beside me and the tent packed under the seat. It's a wonderful way to travel, but involves too many roads, too much traffic and the attendant risks.

These journeys have confirmed that the only practical way of my travelling on this type of journey is with two native ponies, and I will be selecting two Exmoors (preferably) or two Welsh Section C's when I return to the UK sometime in the next few months.

Why two?

Well, although I enjoy camping and sleeping under the stars, I find that a certain modicum of physical comfort is essential. Two ponies means that one of them will carry me - and the other one will carry a packsaddle and pack bags! A mature, healthy pony has no trouble carrying 20 - 25% of its body weight so carrying a pack saddle and back bags of ~ 50kg will be no problem. In addition, horses are herd animals, and many get stressed when alone. Although a horse or pony will rely strongly on its rider for leadership and develop close friendships with animals of other species, given the travelling and constant changes to which I will be exposing my horses, it is only fair that they should have the security of a herd buddy.

Why natives? The native breeds of Britain have evolved to thrive on sparse food and to survive during the hardest winters that occur on the exposed hills on which they are found. Given that I will be travelling for several hours a day, and will never be able to guarantee the quality of the grazing at lunch breaks or overnight, the proverbial ability of the native pony to stay fat on fresh air is a very valuable one. Of course I will do my best to provide good grazing daily, they will have a daily comprehensive supplement and, when travelling through remote upland areas, I'll carry grass nuts or other suitable high-quality fibre, but there will be occasions when the bulk supply of fibre so necessary for the healthy functioning of a horse's gut must come from cotton grass, reeds and heather rather than from more nourishing species. I expect that many nights the ponies will be overnighting in exposed places; there may well be little available shelter and if we get stuck somewhere remote during a period of poor weather, I need to know that all three of us are able to survive without ill effect. There is nothing better than a native coat and native conformation to protect against wind, rain and cold. In addition, their instincts are not far buried and they are often excellent at detecting bogs and other dangerous ground.

Why ponies? For their size, they are stronger than horses. They are - generally - sounder and healthier than their larger counterparts and are certainly a lot easier for this 5ft tall person to handle, groom, saddle and load. At my height, I don't need a large horse, and a sturdy native such as an Exmoor or a Section C, of around 13 hands, is a convenient size while being plenty large and strong enough. Of course, don't forget that the physically smaller size of ponies enables them to fit where their larger brothers cannot - through narrow gaps, under low branches, and squeezing past all the assorted paraphenalia that blocks the typical British bridleway. A furry, short-legged pony is also less confronting to the non-horsey so I hope that finding places to camp and graze overnight will not be too difficult.