TALES of a thousand-mile journey on horseback are told in a new book from a Cornish author.

Cathleen Leonard and her partner, Vlad Coman, set off from their home between Callington and Launceston in 2018 with her rescue French draught horse, Oisín, and her nervous young Welsh Cob x, Dakota.

They journeyed through the south west and across south Wales to Pembrokeshire, crossed the Irish Sea, and travelled the length of Ireland from Mizen to Malin.

Along the way they gathered folk tales and fiddle tunes and even acquired a tiny, but opinionated, one-eyed mule near Limerick. The journey was to raise money for two UK based equine assisted therapy charities, the Conquest Centre and the Red Horse Foundation.

Cathleen’s book ‘Fiddler on the Hoof’ details the realities of horseback travel in a hectic modern world no longer sympathetic to this time-old mode of transport.

Relying on the help and hospitality of complete strangers, this heart-warming tale provides an honest and reassuring account of the better side of human nature, highlights the beautiful bonds developed over hundreds of miles between horses and humans, and is interwoven with some of the music, folklore, myths, and history of Ireland.

‘Fiddler on the Hoof’ can be found on Amazon together with her first book, ‘Before Winter Comes’, which tells the story of her 1,000 mile solo journey on horseback from Scotland to Cornwall in 2017 raising money for the RDA.

Cathleen and Vlad are now in Portugal with all their equines preparing to begin another long journey when travel restrictions are lifted. This time they will be riding 3,000 miles across nine different European countries to Romania.

For more information on their travels, visit www.astrangerequest.co.uk or follow them on Facebook: A Strange Request.