The joys of spring

With the hunters roughed off, Tessa Waugh is enjoying some time pottering around among the spring blooms, defuzzing the ponies and catching up on the postman's gossip

IT was lovely to be back in the south, seeing old friends and some new. My sister, Gillian, has a pony on loan for her daughter Lily, who is five. Like all the best ponies, this through via a friend who also grew up hunting with the South and West Wilts and hunts there now with her husband and children.

First ponies are like Mary Poppins. They work their magic with one family and then move on to the next. The new arrival is a smart little bay mare called Daisy, looking good in her late twenties, but she needed a bit of help to shed her winter coat.