Like most pre-adolescent girls, I took horse-riding lessons when I was young, but I haven't ridden much since then. I've also never ridden Western-style before, with a one-handed grip on the reins and long stirrups, but it was a lot of fun. My horse and I developed a reasonable working relationship, and broadly agreed on the direction and speed of travel, which is always a bonus. Watching wildlife from horseback is actually quite a good way to go about it. Many animals seem to see you as some kind of weird centaur-like half-human, half-horse creature, and so come a bit closer than they might if you were on foot. It's great until one of the horses accidentally kicks a bees' nest, as happened on one of the rides I went on.

So, if you hear tales of a chaps-wearing, big-knife-tucked-in-back-waistband, English vegetarian vachero (or should that be vachera?) roaming the wide open spaces of Brazil, that will probably be me.

^1^ From my safe position at the back of the group, well away from angry bees and stampeding horses. ↑