This 80-Year-Old Woman Rides A 600 Mile Horseback Adventure Every Year

Every year since 1971, Jane Dotchin has packed up her saddlebags for a 600 mile – 7 week adventure on horseback. Now at 80-years-old with just one eye, joined by her disabled 10-year-old Jack Russell Dinky, she climbs onto the back of her 13-year-old pack pony Diamond heading north from her home in Hexham towards the Scottish Highlands.

“I love camping and I love the countryside,” she says. “The more I’ve done it the more nice people I’ve got to know on route and I want to go back and see them again.”

Now with an eye-patch covering one eye with her other damaged by a branch, difficulty in reading maps means she sticks to the routes she knows. But still carrying with her all the food and supplies she needs for the self-sufficient journey – including a tent – she’s got no intention of stopping anytime soon.