Ruby Grimshaw swaps the saddle for the pool

I went for a longer than usual hack the other day with some friends – past the Spooky Trees (a lot of mishaps there in the past!), up the Sheep Field (now empty of livestock and ideal for a canter), left onto the South Downs Way, round the Jack and Jill Windmills, alongside the golf course and finally back home to the stables. In total, not more than two hours, which is nothing compared to my five hours a day in the saddle in India in February. So I was horrified to find that when I tried to dismount, my knees and hips appeared to be stuck. I now know what it must have felt like to be a medieval knight, waiting for his knave to come along with a hoist to heave him out of the saddle.

“I now know what it must have felt like to be a medieval knight”

I did not want the shame of asking for help, so I lifted my right leg over the horse’s neck and let it drop in front of the saddle, then slid down to the ground slowly, joking to everyone that I fancied myself as John Wayne. (He had a reputation for being very hard on his horses, to the point of cruelty. But I won’t tell my brother that because J.W. was his childhood hero.)

The stiffness wore off straight away, which was a relief, as this meant it wasn’t arthritis and I did not need to join the NHS waiting list for new hips. But it has made me realise that if I want to carry on riding, I need to add swimming to my daily routine. This is in addition to yoga, meditation, piano practise and writing. How did I manage to do without all this self improvement when I was working?

I did not fancy facing the frenetic atmosphere of the two main swimming pools so I was delighted to find a smaller one off the beaten track which had adult – and even women – only sessions. It’s not that I dislike children, but they do take up a lot of room in a pool. However, swimming endless lengths up and down has proved to be a bit boring, even when breaking it up with sessions of exercises. I think it is time someone invented a type of waterproof Kindle so that one could read as one ploughs up and down. And I’m still a little hurt that when I went to pay, I was given a concession without requesting one. They could have pretended to ask!