A horse a horse my kingdom for .....

"There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse"

Was it Dr Johnson - sorry I can't be bothered to walk over to the bookshelf and pick up the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations to check, the Idler must be working.

Anyway the poor little AB just turned 11, and the door slamming, mother upsetting, monosyllabic ingrate phase has kicked in early. Thank goodness for ponies - there is no better cure for a fit of teenage hormonalness than a muck fork and a wheel barrow, and you get all that nice smelly country air thrown in for free!

It only turns nasty when mother is in the menage doing a spot of horse schooling, it's doubly embarassing because mother is quite good and that's really not allowed! Little does she know that I'd love to be doing the grooming and mucking out too - but I'm holding back because even I wouldn't want to be THAT embarassing!