Day 63, 7th July

Another not so long day – I would have slept in an hour longer, but unfortunately woke up at my normal six o'clock and got up at just before seven to check on the ponies.

For the first time since one bad experience on my last long ride, I had left 10 of the 12 boots on the ponies' hooves over night and was of course constantly slightly nervous about it. The paddock they had spent the night in was very small, though it had loads of grass, so I had felt safe that they would have no reason to make any sudden movements, let alone be able to race around and the boots would be fine... and they were! Lovely! That saved quite a lot of time in the morning.

I got fresh croissants for breakfast – lovely! - and then got the ponies ready in a couple of slight rain showers before setting off at half past nine in the morning. Sandie, who I had stayed with, came with us for the first coupleof miles and kindly took some photos along the way. We went back the same way we had come and spent the first half of the way at Artax's fast walk with both ponies doing a slow trott because they were all so motivated and knew where we were headed.

At just three o'clock, we made it to our destination where we were made very welcome again, the gear could luckily go in the dry stable and Maggie and I got a place in the house – yippie! The ponies went on the same field as the last time, but this time spent it with two little Shetlands. I'm not sure they were so happy about it, but they seemed to have fun at the beginning running around the field at high speed, though mine lasted a lot longer than the little ones who didn't do 20 miles a day and had slightly bigger tummies.