Just going for a short hack...

 Meet ex-racehorse Razor (on the left) and Larry - the laid back cob - on the right.
I met them this weekend when they 'borrowed' the Pine Tree Pasture for a sleep-over on Sunday night between days 2 and three of their mammoth journey along the recently opened Lindsey Trail - a circular 75 mile 'ride' across some of the most beautiful countryside in Lincolnshire.
"I'm sorry to drop in on you like this and I hope you don't think I've got a cheek but is that your paddock up the road and if so could we put our horses in it for a night" said Wendy one evening just over a fortnight back. We'd only just got back from an event doing the Pork Provisioning 'thing' so I was a bit tired and didn't really take in what Wendy was asking so said I'd get back to them.

"Any news on whether we can overnight the horses?" she reminded me a week or so later. Having finally decided that we would not be spraying off the weeds in that field till after a crop of hay for the pigs had been taken off it, I mailed and told them we'd be delighted to let them use it. Since it is directly on the route they were riding it was particularly suitable. When I did the rounds last thing Sunday night it was clear that Larry and Razor thought it particularly suitable too - they were noses down and chilling after day 2 of their 3 day journey.
It's not just for the heck of it that a couple of young girls decide to ride 75 miles.
A while back Claire had a bad fall from one of her horses and had to be airlifted to hospital.

Initial diagnoses showed that she had severed one of the vertebrae in her spine which would result in her not being able to ever walk again.
Yet she managed to walk out of the hospital some 10 hours later - a stroke of fortune which she puts down to the speedy response of the air ambulance in getting her to the hospital before the damage embedded itself irretrievably. So she and Wendy  trained up over the past few months in order to raise money for the Ambucopter (see www.justgiving.com/lindseytrailchallenge). They're the first to have ridden the whole 75 miles in one 'go' - no mean feat, requiring physical fitness on the part of horses & riders as well as logistical planning and support to ensure that back-up, food & equipment were in the right places at the right time. It's a challenge made all the more rewarding considering that when Claire first 'found' Razor 4 years ago he was a 13 year old, broken down, dangerous ride/serious project.  She's managed to turn him 360 degrees and give him a whole new lease of life. Maybe inside she feels that's what the Air Ambulance did for her. 
I suspect between the four of them they've issued a challenge which others will aim to rise to over the coming years - if not months. "Just going for a short hack...." could take on altogether different connotations in this part of the world (or do I mean Wolds) from now on......