Gs4 Security: Ed Hamer

Friday 11 January 2013

Ed Hamer

Ed Hamer, and horse Samson, photographed for Observer Food Monthly in Chagford, Devon, 11 July 2011. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the ObserverChagford is about as lovely a village as you could ever hope to find. It's almost absurdly picturesque with its ancient stone buildings and village green bounded by fields and streams and the wild, dark hills of Dartmoor looming overhead. It's hard to imagine how it could be any lovelier. And then Samson comes clip-clopping down the road pulling a cart loaded with freshly picked organic produce.Honestly. It's so ridiculously bucolic that I expect Miss Marple to come flying around the corner on a bicycle. What's more, walking down the road, at Samson's side, with his owner, Ed Hamer, I have a small taste of what life must be like as a supermodel. People slow down. They smile. They wave. They seem genuinely delighted to see me, or at least Samson. Everybody loves Samson, a handsome four-year-old Welsh cob cross Dartmoor pony. Ed grew up in Chagford and so although the route from his field to our destination is only a mile, we have to stop for half a dozen conversations and for Samson to have his nose repeatedly petted.