Jez dropped me off at William Reddaway's house, where we had dinner, sorted out my saddle bags and as much horse feed as I needed for the next few days before Jez set off back to West Sussex and William helped me plot my next days ride from Castlemorton to Cleeve Hill, this was mostly along the Sabrina Way with a few modifications from William. It was great to finally meet William after stumbling across his website a few month before I had set off on my ride. We had plenty to talk about and not a lot of time to do it in!
William Reddaway and Strider, his horse, are setting out next year on a journey to the four corners of England, dropping by at as many cathedrals as possible en route, riding straight through the middle of towns and cities, blowing his trumpet to attract as much attention as possible. William plans to raise an incredible £250,000 to be split between Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre and the Family Holiday association. Visit his website at www.rideroundengland.org to see if he will be dropping by your local cathedral at some point! And offers of accommodation for the night for either horse or rider will be very gratefully received.
William dropped me back up to Sarah's at Castlemorton in the morning, where we discovered Cognac had lost all the nails on the inside of his off- fore, they had come out cleanly and his hoof wall was all intact, although I did have to pull one nail out, which was bent over but still in. The shoe was flat and not bent at all so I decided that if I went steady it would be fine for the day and that we could try and get a farrier for the evening or next morning.
We had a nice ride, the route was easy to follow and although it was a long day at 25 miles it was most flat and William and Strider rode out to meet us for the last five miles of so, which was really nice. Great to finally meet Strider!
William's farrier Wesley had kindly agreed to drop by next morning to replace the lost nails in Cognac's shoe so I fed Cognac and we turned him out in a very grassy field with horses across the way for company.
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