"I'm taking a breather before the imminent visit of the team of inspectors from the SPSBS, the society that regulates the breeding of Shetland ponies in Britain. The inspectors are going to the Cottage on the Moss, where Christine and I live. Also waiting for the inspectors in a pen down there is the colt we bred; the society inspectors will determine whether this colt, 'Moss', will grow up to be a stallion with a herd of mares to himself, or whether he will be gelded and become someone's pet. There is much depending on this, for the first time that we had a colt inspected -- one that we bought for the purpose -- the inspectors ruled against us. If Moss the colt passes we'll really be in business as a viable stud farm, but if he doesn't we might have to wait a few years before another home-bred colt that is good enough reaches inspection age.

'If you can't stand the waiting,' Christine said to me as I paced up and down in the garden on the morning of the inspection, 'then go for a walk or a drive -- they won't be here for an hour.'

So taking her advice I drove up the steep and winding track that loops around Stone Cloude. I couldn't resist keeping a watchful eye on events through my binoculars though, while I took time to reflect on our lives in the little dwelling far below.

We have lived in the Cottage on the Moss for more than ten years now. We began this rather isolated life while in our mid-twenties. Since then we have come to know the Moss and its ways intimately. We have had good times and bad, met difficult problems and found answers to most of them.

So what is living on the Moss really like?"

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