and probably why you’ll usually find my heroines atop a horse at some stage or another

I was looking through some old photos when this one came up from many years ago and reminded me, as if I needed reminding, how much I used to love to ride. I’ve tried to explain in the past to those who haven’t ridden what an amazing feeling it is galloping across the ground, just you, your horse and the countryside around you, but it’s something you can never really appreciate unless you experience it.

The hard hat and jodhpurs of today are nothing like the fashions created for women in the early nineteenth century, though formal wear is still quite splendid. Today one’s hair would be tied back, but the feeling of the wind in one’s face would have been the same. Even at a distance of many years it is something I’ve never forgotten.

I think it’s no coincidence that horses figure quite prominently in my books. A hankering back perhaps not just to those incredibly satisfying times spent mucking out the stables, grooming one’s horse, or riding free, but also to two centuries ago when my heroines were clothed in the most glorious riding habits. Don’t you just love the feather. I’m not sure though how I’d have felt about riding side-saddle.

Until next time

Natalie