An older adult female riding a draft horse in a rural landscape with late summer or early autumn foliage and midday light.

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At 80, she rides 600 miles with her pony and dog

Name: At 80, she rides 600 miles with her pony and dog
Uploaded: 2021-09-07T10:07:12Z
Duration: 3 min 7 s
Description: Once a year, Jane Dotchin packs a tent and some food onto a pony called Diamond, sets her little dog Dinky in the saddlebag, and heads north from Hexham. She is 80.

Once a year, Jane Dotchin packs a tent and some food onto a pony called Diamond, sets her little dog Dinky in the saddlebag, and heads north from Hexham. She is 80. more

The ride is about 600 miles and takes around seven weeks. She is bound for the Highlands, most likely the Cairngorms, though she says that depends on the weather.

Diamond is 13, or maybe 14. Jane isn't quite sure. This is the pony's fourth year on the trip, and she is the fourth generation of pack ponies Jane has raised. The first was a little Haflinger stallion, and the two of them made her first trip decades ago.

For years Jane rode down into the south of England, where the bridleways were better. Then the traffic got so heavy that even crossing a road was hard. About 30 years ago she turned the other way and started coming north.

An older rider in a helmet rides a dark horse along a path with tall grass on both sides. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Jane and her pony on a grassy path along the way.

The roads are still the worst part. There's a cycle path beside the A9, but cars zoom past all the time, and when it's wet the spray makes Diamond nervous. Some farm machines are so big they fill the whole road. Most drivers don't slow down for a horse, and Jane calls it appalling.

Even the edge of the road has its risks. Bottles, cans and pizza boxes lie along the side. If Diamond steps on something and gets a fright, she may jump back out into traffic. Jane is sure she can keep her calm.

Dinky is 10 and rides in style. Her front feet are deformed and turn out, so she can't walk far. She doesn't seem to mind. Jane says she is "quite happy sitting in there watching the world go by."

"I love camping and I love the countryside," Jane says, and the more trips she makes, the more kind people she gets to know along the way. She keeps to the same route so she can see them again. "There's more lovely people than nasty ones, really," she says, and it's only the troublemakers who end up in the headlines.

An older adult female riding a draft horse in a rural landscape with late summer or early autumn foliage and midday light. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Once a year, Jane Dotchin packs a tent and some food onto a pony called Diamond, sets her little dog Dinky in the saddlebag, and heads north from Hexham.

There's a practical reason too. Jane wears a patch over one eye, and she once got a branch in an eye that had to be stitched up. She can see, but she can't read a map very well. She doesn't need to, since she knows the roads by heart, and if she ever gets into trouble, she knows somebody will be there, not far away, to help.