Moss Trant was born on a Wednesday, at the end of a hard winter. His father had left earlier the same morning, to feed the sheep out on the moor. Henry Trant was wrapped up in coats and a hat and thick gloves on a Honda Pioneer with a Mars bar in his pocket and two dogs breathing down his neck and slapping their tails behind him. In three feet of snow who could say when he would be back.

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Aunt Eva was born a gypsy and raised on the road, now she drinks whiskey punch and lives in a shepherd’s cottage on the moor. She always knew Moss would be a horseman, she tells his mother. Maureen is old farm stock, she doesn’t need Eva’s opinion on any of her three sons. At 18 Moss buys an ‘unrideable' blanket-spot Appaloosa from a gypsy horse fair and trains it.

The trekking business that Moss runs with his father brings in more money than the farm will ever make, but when his spotted horse is killed in an accident, Moss swears he will never ride again.

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In the spring following the accident, Betsy Rose swings into the yard of the farm in a pair of old leather walking boots. She comes from the city, replaces Moss leading out the treks, she’s a breath of fresh air.

If anyone can persuade Moss to work with the horses again it’s Betsy. But then she starts dating Brett Lynch and her liaison with the family behind Lynch Property re-ignites an old grudge.