He stumbles badly, right down on to one knee, lurching me forward on to his shoulder. Will we fall? A tangled mess of limbs and hooves? He rights himself just in time. We’re OK. It was just a trip. The early winter air is in our lungs, and soon his stiff joints will loosen. He has various ailments that come with being an elderly horse, and ours has been a long partnership of more than 23 years. I know that each ride could be the last.
We amble. Ears pricked forward, mane scruffy. The sky belongs to birds today. A small murmuration of starlings scuds by, then a flock of wood pigeons, surprisingly fast and agile. The noisiest of all are the jackdaws. They are everywhere.
The trees are full of them, chack, chack, chacking that hard, pinging call. Hopping from branch to branch or swooping in and out of the oak’s boughs, but always chatting and disagreeing. They live up to their collective noun: a clattering of jackdaws.
On the pastures, they strut in pairs, turning over horse droppings in search of invertebrates. Jackdaws pair for life and normally stay close by each other, so it’s easy to identify the couples. One bird bounces along comically, every jump taking it inches clear of the ground. The low sunshine highlights the iridescence of its feathers, the silvery nape, and the piercing Paul Hollywood eyes.
Over Chestnut Wood, a mixed flock of jackdaws and rooks flies high, taking on a different character. No longer chatty and cheeky, but mysterious and mesmerising, the group performs a rising and falling corkscrew movement. A loose vortex of birds. Occasionally, an individual breaks free of the group and plummets into a sudden dive. It’s possibly part of courtship for young jackdaws pairing up during their first autumn, or maybe just exuberance.
Two decades have vanished from my horse, shaken off like cobwebs, and he is not stumbling but jogging and prancing. Sweat rises from his neck and I take my attention away from the skies and the birds, back to the art and science of not falling off. It does us both good to get out, and as the challenges of winter approach, I plan our next ride.
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