Today's Lane Encounters.

First there was Janet, a woman whom I judged to be even older than me and who was riding a beautiful grey called Benson (which reminded me of Alec Guinness’s butler in Murder By Death, but I avoided sniggering.) Benson was elegant and stately – around 16.2 I would say – but rather haughty and stand-offish. Janet, on the other hand, seemed reluctant to stop talking. I’m wondering why middle aged women on horseback seem so inclined to stop and talk to me these days. It never used to happen, and young women on horseback still don’t.

Then there was a squirmy, waggle-bottomed, five-month-old Labrador called Heidi. What Benson lacked in interpersonal skills, Heidi more than made up for. And where Benson’s human had been nothing if not verbose, Heidi’s pair of human females seemed disinclined even to break their stride, much less engage in anything approaching a conversation. Interestingly, they were middle aged, too, so maybe the difference can be accounted for by whether or not they have the dominant position.