Stanley the Dog.

The red mare, with her duchessy sense of entitlement, does tend to colonise this blog. She gave me a ride this morning of such grace and ease and joy that I almost wept with delight. She was so relaxed that I let the rope rest on her dear neck and steered her with my body. An ex-racing thoroughbred, out in the wide open Scottish spaces, with no reins. A lady with a dog did look rather startled. Red gave her a yeah, well, whatever look.

Then we did a bit of a whooping sprint, just for fun. She really is quite fast. Feel the power, baby.

But she is not the only creature of my heart, and I thought that I’d do a little Stan the Man photo shoot, and give my lovely boy his moment in the sun. He did seem to rather enjoy the posing. He starts off with a rather contemplative look, as if he is pondering the Universal Why, then moves on to pure nobility, throws in a bit of quizzical, and ends on a laugh. He should be a supermodel.

It’s been a long week and I should continue flat out until supper, but I’m shattered, and I’m going to finish work now and watch the racing.

As I thrill to the speed and courage and beauty of the mighty thoroughbreds on Goodwood’s green turf, I shall be thinking of quite another horse, and quite another rider. I spent this morning at HorseBack with a very remarkable Marine. He is one of the most inspirational men I have ever met. He’s incredibly funny, incredibly kind, and he has no legs. And today, he started learning to ride. It was absolutely bloody brilliant.

I got very excited and took many pictures, and I’m putting up a link to them here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152413657640568.1073741948.197483570567&type=1

And here is Mr Stanley, in all his glory:

The mighty Marine:

And here is something we have not had for a while – the beautiful blue hill: