Well, the Travellers are passing through this area again, as they often do. Sometimes they’ll bring horses with them and stake them out with huge chains on any bit of grassland they can find – wide verges, the dyke tops, fields and roadsides … and this time they’ve chosen a ‘set-aside’ field which is part of our normal morning dog-walking route.

Often, or so I’m told, these wretched animals are destined for the European meat market, and they wait, bedraggled and mud spattered, out in all weathers, to be fat enough to be worth killing. Often, they won’t even have water until a man drives up in a van in the evening and drags some out of the nearest dyke for them. But these horses are different. These horses are beautiful. Prime examples, if I’m not mistaken, of the breed known as the Gypsy Vanner.

They’ve been here for a few weeks now, and unlike many, they have a bucket in a tyre next to the stake, which contains water. Unlike most, they’re not tethered with heavy chains, but with something lighter and kinder to their necks. They’re friendly and interested in people, and so I conclude that they are well treated which is so nice to see.

And a couple of weeks ago one of them produced a tiny and very pretty little foal! It’s a delightful little thing, like most foals, but so nicely marked! I’m guessing that she is probably destined to be sold as a riding or carriage pony.

Unfortunately, the field they’re staked out in is absolutely riddled with Oxford Ragwort, despite the farmer’s best efforts to spray it into submission. I’m hoping the horses don’t eat any, because it’s poisonous to farm stock and causes irreversible liver damage. You can’t see it in these pictures because having had the top growth killed off last year, the plants are at the rosette stage, with just a few leaves at ground level.  Any yellow flowers you can see here are actually Oilseed Rape, self-seeded from a neighbouring crop.

The third Gypsy Vanner can be seen here, because I’ve already used that one!