Two more plucky gentlemen have taken tumbles in the run-up to the cross-country jumping season.

Local event rider David Elms had a nasty fall at the same formidable tyres that claimed our friend Keith Rosier on the Easter Trail Ride.

Unlike Keith, who was also preparing for the 2010 eventing calendar, David was badly hurt. He was taken by ambulance to Airedale Hospital and is now recovering at home with pelvic injuries.

David, whose dream is to ride at Badminton, is determined to be fit for next month’s Bramham Horse Trials.

A happy surprise for a housebound David is that Steve plans to bring round his complete portfolio of Daniel photographs to make the hours fly by!

On Saturday, Jack became the third member of our family to fall victim to The Hanging Log at Craven Country Ride.

In October 2008, Steve broke his finger at the fence when his hand got caught under the saddle. On last year’s Easter Trail Ride, his daughter Sophie was flung off when Daniel took a great leap at it. Thankfully, Jack was fine and went on to clear the “stable block”, a large “skinny log” and The Gigantic Hedge.

Jenny and Esme, following Jack on foot, took a close look at this hedge. It is a good 3ft 6in high and bushily wide. Esme described Daniel’s feat in jumping it a fortnight ago as “terrifying”.

At the weekend, Jenny went into Skipton and bought a can of Deosect as the latest weapon in the battle against Daniel’s sweet itch. We sprayed him with a dilute jug of the highly-concentrated solution hoping it will keep the insects off him.

Another move in the campaign has been to reunite Daniel with his hated powder blue fly mask.

Last year, we spent hours trudging the fields searching for it after he kept removing it. This time, it took him less than 24 hours to deposit his beautifully laundered mask in a sodden, muddy, heap under a tree.

Daniel’s latest technique is to scrape it off, still fastened up, and leave it neatly draped from a hook outside his stable.

“Look,” he said: “I can ’ang me ’at up now!”

Steve Wright & Jenny Loweth