Reflex [antikvár]

1 Winded and coughing, I lay on one elbow and spat out a mouthful of grass and mud. The horse I'd been riding raised its weight off my ankle, scrambled untidily to its feet and departed at an unfeeling gallop. I waited for things to settle: chest heaving, bones still rattling fix)m tiie bang, sense of balance recovering firom a thirty-mile-an-hour somersault and a few tumbling rolls. No harm done. Nothing broken. Just another fall. Time and place: sixteenth fence, three-mile steeplechase, Sandown Park racecourse, Friday, November, in lliin, cold, persistent rain. At the return of breath and energy I stood weiffily up and thought with intensity that this was a damn silly way for a grown man to be spending his life. The thought itself was a jolt. Not one I'd ever thought before. Riding horses at high speed over various jumps