Horses - heavy Belgian coldbloods, strong Trakehners and stocky Haflingers - were still the most commonly used and most widespread forms of transport and draught power on narrow, winding byways, on sloping fields and in wooded ravines. My winter memories are of the water vapour rising from their breath and their warm flanks; my image of summer is filled with the scent of their brown hair and glossy manes. I still shudder when I recall the horror I felt when I first saw the square-headed iron nails being hammered into what I thought of as the soles of their feet.
