....and the gate had been tied shut. I asked a man working at the stables and he said that one of the farmers had done it. This is illegal: a public right of way cannot be closed off at the whim of an individual. The stable man went off for a few seconds and came back with a sharp, jagged knife with which he started hacking at the thick string. He got through it and we were able to pass through the gate.
We then still managed to go the wrong way through the field until eventually making it to the other stables (where horses’ heads hovered above their low-cut doors) and – after climbing over another fence because there were pallets in the way – to the bridlepath beyond.
It was a warm, muggy walk home.
