AW and I rode from Edinburgh to the Berwickshire coast. We risked our lives – and those of our horses – travelling along the busy A1.

At the end of our journey, AW struggled to persuade her mount to clamber up the sand dunes to reach the shore. I steered my own horse a short way along the road to a gap on the sand and soon joined everyone else on the packed beach.

I lost AW when she set off to paddle in the cold North Sea.