There are loads of these horses’ heads on poles standing around in our school. I’ve no idea for what purpose they were made or by whom. The maker has a seriously good eye for a caricature. They are much too “good” to be just someone getting lucky. They’re so good they’re scary. I have always had a thing about horses – that is a bad thing, not a girly horsey fantasy. I try my hardest to keep my distance from them although that’s not easy given that a little posse of them spend quite a lot of time leaning over our fence trying to stare out our dogs. It freaks me out at least as much as it does the dogs. You should see Lola fronting up to them though – for such a titch, she’s got a surprisingly gung-ho attitude!

In a lifetime of living, I’ve only ever been in close contact with horses on a handful of occasions, one of which has already been documented here! I did ride a horse briefly (not because I fell off but because I just couldn’t get the point) on two or three occasions but quickly realised it was not something to be repeated. Other than that, the closest I get to horses is armour-clad scary beasts on Tottenham High Road on match days…and even that is a long-distant memory.

Despite all that, I like this photo, albeit hastily composed and shot in a room without much to commend it. I am thinking it’s a sign that I should read “War Horse”. I LOVE Michael Morpurgo – everything I’ve read by him has been terrific but War Horse strikes me as a step too far. Perhaps I should just canter towards it and embrace it?

What's most surreal about my mini-obsession is that there are several children who pitch up at my school on horseback each day. The horses don't, much to my relief, remain hitched the the railings all day although it would have been an interesting sight if they had.

Lola update - she's back at the vet tomorrow having not eaten anything more than a few laps of milk and some cheese in 9 days. What she's eaten wouldn't even make 1/4 of her normal single evening meal. Weirdly she's as perky as anything so is clearly not in great pain but her illness remains a complete mystery. Hopefully we'll know more by tomorrow night.