Pipes in Clover

When I was (much) younger I went through a phase of reading pony books. The only title I remember is Ponies in Clover. I couldn't tell you anything about the book. My one abiding memory of pony books is the point at which (did it really happen in every pony book?) the plucky girl would notice that one of the horses had colic. It was late at night, grown-ups were absent, but the plucky girl knew what to do. She had to walk that horse. She had to walk and walk with that horse until they were both asleep on their feet, because a horse with colic that lies down dies.

I thought about colicky horses this evening. I had a skimpy lunch (too hot to be bothered), came home, got dinner in the oven, poured an aperitif and began to play. Naturally the aperitif went straight to my head so my fingers and brain disconnected themselves and great waves of sleepiness kept washing over me. I managed a handful of tunes, but then the Cudgel got stuck on a loop of B parts, Athol kept skipping direct from the first to the fourth part, and the Braemar Gathering stalled after two parts. I kept walking about to keep myself going, but decided to give up while I was still playing recognisable strings of notes.