Mutty

This is a drawing of me on my 'horse of a lifetime'. I will probably never again be privileged enough to have charge of such a star. He was wise as the hills, talented way beyond my limitations as a rider and the sweetest, kindest horse I have had. His jumping ability had some drawbacks.

There wasn't a field that would keep him in.

When I was away at art school in the winter, he was kept at various livery yards across Edinburgh in the hope that they might contain him. He was once found trotting around the roundabout beside Edinburgh Airport, fortunately not as busy in those days as it is now, and another time jumped a six foot wall out of a field in front of the owner of the yard, who couldn't believe her eyes. Neither could the postman whose van he narrowly avoided.

His finest moment, to my mind, happened in a yard where I had been promised winter grazing. What we got instead was far too many horses in a tiny section of mudbath. 'Mutty', rightly, took exception to this state of affairs and hopped over the wire to the neighbouring field, which was full of grass. The rest of the horses thought this was a fine plan, and followed him. Except they didn't possess his spring-heeled qualities, mangled the fence and I was asked to leave the yard!