Someone else’s story has reminded me of something that happened to me when I was 19. I was learning to ride at a riding school at Liberton, south of Edinburgh. You got the ride cheaper if you untacked your own horse and cleaned the tack.

There was this beautiful little chestnut mare called Tonya, really pretty, although she had a trot like a pneumatic drill. Tonya was very self-willed but also kind - she only bolted with experienced riders. With novices like me she refused to move at all, but stood leaning over the fence, watching the horse in the next ring.

So, the very bossy young woman who was taking the class was shouting at me about how hopeless I was, and “You can do dressage with her if you know what you’re doing”. I thought but didn’t say, “Of course you can, she’s *interested* in dressage - she isn’t interested in walking round and round a ring”, and also “If I could do dressage, why would I be in this class?”

Afterwards, I was in the stall with Tonya, untacking her, when this woman came to continue haranguing me, whilst absent-mindedly helping to untack. It was at this point that she made the fundamental mistake of taking the bridle off without putting the headcollar on first, so that she was attached to Tonya only by a loop of reins around her neck.

Tonya then decided she wanted to go talk to another pony who was a friend of hers. With nothing to control her head, she dragged this woman out of the stall, along a corridor, round a corner, down another corridor and round another corner, as the woman dug her heels in, tugged futilely at the reins and shouted “Tonya, come here! Tonya! Tonya!”

I didn’t gloat too obviously - I just said “She seems to have a mind of her own”, with which the tutor agreed fervently.