'You would have cried'

Visitors bring both a cheery quad bike outing and fears for missing offspring thanks to a gorse-aversive horse. Tessa Waugh reflects on an out-of-the-ordinary but ultimately satisfying day

- Tessa Waugh

JIM'S off games with a big leg so I was planning to hunt on a quad bike on Saturday. I hadn't told Adam but I was still annoyed when he revealed that he had offered the bike to a friend's husband who was visiting from Dartmoor.

"Well, he'll have to take Jack and me too," I snapped.

"That'll be fine," he replied, with that long-suffering look that comes naturally to those who have been married for a while.

At the meet our friendly-faced co-pilot introduced himself in the soothing accents of the south-west - we've lived up here for 13 years now and I love to hear the soft burr of home.