Jamie and I had lots of trying times, especially in the beginning. As the years passed we were getting to be on the same wave-length....I thought about doing something and Jamie went ahead and just did it. This is something I don't think I will ever have again. I knew and trusted him completely and we had a lot of fun together. If I asked him to do anything at all he would try for me....but there were times when he thought I was asking something really stupid and he would do his best to put me off the idea, usually for my own sake.
One day I decided to go for quite a long ride, roughly sixteen or seventeen miles altogether. we did this often, just the two of us. I always made sure I had plenty of food for me and him.

We set off and it was a lovely, sunny morning with just the hint of an autumn chill. I was well wrapped up as usual, thermals, the lot. I knew how to ride in the cold!! I planned to be home by lunch time or thereabouts. Jamie and I didn't worry about time much unless it was going to get dark.
There was a fair bit of road work to get through before we got to the GOOD bits, but I didn't mind, and neither did Jamie. Sometimes we met the regular people out at this time who knew us and we'd stop and have a chat.We had an old friend who rode his bike out in the village and he would ride along with us for a while and catch up on all the news. We arrived at the woods to start our canter ?? at the very bottom of the track......I made a point of getting to that entrance to make sure we got the full gallop all the way to the top. I was always quite put out if I had to stop for any reason, like people, dogs, bikes etc: However this particular day the small stream running alongside the path looked lovely and clear for a change. I thought it might be a good idea to let Jamie walk into the stream for a short part of the way to get a drink and it seemed quite a idyllic notion to walk in the water, with the light shining through the trees.Jamie, very sensibly, didn't want to go in the stream. He didn't think it was such an idyllic notion at all, he thought it was complete madness!! We argued for a few minutes until , he must've thought to himself, 'ok ok if that's what you really want, it's not a good idea but you'll soon find out' Well, funnily enough the water was much much deeper than I thought and before we knew what was happening we were falling over, both of us up to our necks in freezing cold water!! We were very wet and cold. Jamie looked at me as if to say'I told you so'. We still had quite a journey home, my lovely saddle was a darker colour and probably would never recover from the soaking, and it looked as if we would both catch pneumonia. Once you're wet you're wet, and I wasn't about to let it spoil my ride, cold as I was. Jamie stood quietly until I remounted and squelched down into the saddle. I was a bit worried he might get shivery so I just said 'on you go, Jamie' and we were flying up the track at such a rate I didn't feel the cold at all!! We cantered and galloped on every available surface and once we hit the roads we trotted along at such a speed, we were home in half the time!!! No stopping for friendly chats this time!!! Next time Jamie was so reluctant to do something, I paid heed and we didn't do it!! Oh, and my woolly jumper shrunk!! fortunately, neither of us suffered any ill effects.