I've been to Appleby a few times, Ruth - and have even rigdden in the river - swum, once - it was an amazing experience. It scares me that i had no idea how deep it was - this big shelf that is mentioned. You can bet I won't be doing that again. I've not seen horses being held under - to me, the harshest thing to watch is the really rough riding and the way the young lads thrash the horses (by thrash I don't mean whip - i mean go as fast as is possible) up and down mettalled roads - all day. This can't be good for their joints. It is the equine equivalent of doing wheelspins in a souped up motor - except most of these horses aren't souped up - they're working cobs. I know there are plenty of good dealers there - and it is a spectacle - but the younger generation, now growing up, seems to have a different edge, somehow. Bombing up and down the road might have been fine, 150 years ago when it wasn't tarmacced - but it will bugger the horses nowadays.

I hope that the travellers sort it out - I know it seems to have been an isolated incident by a stupid individual - but it casts a pall over the event. Not only for the poor horse - who had a terrifying ordeal, but it would have been witnessed by possibly thousands of people around the bridge - many children - and it won't be a hapy memory of what should have been a wonderful experience. Watching a horse drown and be dragged out on to the river bank must have been the most dreadful thing.

It is a truly living tradition, and therefore it is going to change, because of changes in the behaviour of those participating in it.
Hope it doesn't go too far down a bad road.