The (not entirely unexpected) coincidence of a man and a workhorse

If you’ve been following this blog lately, you’ll know we’ve been looking for a tractor.

Not just any tractor. That would be easy.

We’ve been looking for an achingly cute antique (red) tractor that can cut grass, drag fallen trees, and (eventually) transport guests’ suitcases from their car to their yurt.

And we’ve failed.

True, we’ve been offered an excellent John Deere. We’ve answered a few classified ads for 1950s Masseys. We’ve been to the tractor garage a few kilometres (couple of miles) away. Twice. But they all wanted more euros than we were happy to part with.

If you know anything about coincidences, you’ll know that if they’re not happening, something needs to change.

So we changed our minds - and returned to another of Clare’s ideas that I dismissed early on (I really must stop doing that). It's an idea called horse.

Here are a few of the advantages of horse over tractor (in alphabetical order, for no apparent reason):
Cheaper
Friendlier
More sustainable
Produces emissions we can actually use
Quieter
Safer

Besides, what could be cuter than arriving on holiday and watching a horse clomping up the drive to collect your stuff?

Having made up our minds, I just asked a man about a horse. A man who runs the Pony Club where Clare and the daughter have their lessons (see below - "on riding" which, in retrospect, should have been called "on horseback").

Coincidentally (other than knowing the previous owner of our land), this man has several horses that are suitable, for sale, five years old, with years of experience towing gypsy caravans. For 500 euros less than our tractor budget.

Which might be enough to buy the cart.

There's one for sale in this week's free paper.

But I'm not sure we should be getting the cart before the horse.