The lady who walks her dog past my horses every day was obviously eager to tell me something. I have exchanged only a few polite words with her in the past but as she made her way slowly towards my field gate, she lingered, cutting a lonely figure.
‘Let’s go and talk to that lady,’ I said to the builder boyfriend, who was busy holding Darcy the thoroughbred by her lead rope, scratching her neck as she likes him to do, while I put her rug on.
I always like to reach out to locals who seem friendly because the vast majority of passers-by in this neck of the woods seem to be thoroughly obnoxious. This lady always has her dog on a lead and is respectful of the horses. So I made a beeline for her on the basis that she might be the only nice person we ever meet walking by our field.

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