Why every man should be able to ride a horse

The Times · Jeremy Langmead · 2026-11-06 04:10 UTC

How I got back in the saddle in an attempt to gain confidence on horseback

When I was 12, on a family holiday in Scotland, my parents booked a pony trek for my sister and me. My pony was small and shaggy, and it was tied by a rope to the woman leading the ride. I sat there. The pony walked on. That was it, really. My mother, watching from the stables, saw something else entirely. She saw John Wayne in True Grit.

So when we got home, she booked me in at the local stables and told them they had a prodigy coming. Give him the wildest horse you have, she told them. He’s a natural. Unfortunately, they took my mum at her word. The unhinged horse I was given soon bolted into the forest, my hat went one way and I went the other, and the hawthorn hedges did a thorough job of ripping up my face. I was tied to the leader’s horse for the rest of the ride. To make matters worse, when the lead horse began to defecate explosively, my steed trotted right up to it, turned to one side, and my leg was promptly plastered in manure. I didn’t get on a horse for years.