Despite being drier this morning, we decided to make the day shorter. We would miss crossing the Plateau de Sault – not in it full winter glory with the snow but probably still worthwhile – and have a late lunch in Puivert. I swapped horses this morning and rode Pilou – the absolute front runner and quite a handful.
It turned out to be an eventful day. First, having got the horses back together after a group of six dashed on, a long way, ahead, we crossed a main road and half way through crossing one of the horses was hit by a car. Apparently, there was a small gap and despite being amply warned, the young girl at the wheel, decided she would chance it. The horse rolled over the car leaving a fair amount of damage and a shocked driver, but the horse just got up and ran on with the group. Even now, we have no idea which horse it was.
Almost immediately after this, Elza parted company with her horse. I’m not entirely certain what happened but I gather the horse reared up somewhat, throwing her.
We regrouped at the usual lunch spot and continued with a couple of horse changes – Elza and Stéphanie swapped as did Marie-Line and Guillaume. On reaching the river, Pierre, Guillaume and I crossed with a couple of horses but we realised it was a little dangerous, especially when one of the smaller horses threatened to be washed downstream. Pierre tried to turn the group around but 14 horses had already crossed an Guillaume and I continued with the small group while the rest took an alternative route along the road to Puivert.
Just after passing the airfield, the herd decided to turn right into a field surrounded by a waterlogged ditch. At this point, Guillaume’s hackamore broke too 
As we saw the rest of the herd descending along the road into Puivert, I thought it time to move. Guillaume had fashioned a temporary bridle from his halter and so off we went. Only Pilou decided not to cross the ditch at the narrowest point, rather where there was debris lying on the water; I tried to get him to jump but thinking he could walk on the debris, he took one step onto it an promptly lost his footing, landing with his shoulder on the opposite bank, his feet sliding from under him and threatening to take me down too. I pulled my leg from under him, tried to get onto the bank but ended up to my waist in water :S Luckily neither Pilou nor I was hurt and we carried on into the village where we arrived to a round of applause.
This evening Pierre gave a short talk on equine bio-mechanics (it ended up being nearly 3 hours, everyone found it so interesting). Laura reckognized a lot of things I had told her a couple of days ago and I also saw a lot of my own convictions being iterated.
