Before I discovered horses I used to scuba dive - mostly along the south coast of Britain between Sussex and Cornwall. Many was the time that I would come to the surface after a dive only to find that I could not see the inflatable support boat.
There I would be, bobbing up and down, usually with a fellow diver - hoping that eventually the idiot who was driving the boat would come and fish me and my buddy out of the water. After about half an hour of just floating along with just our heads above water we would get cold - even in August and we would start to freeze. Talk about brass monkeys. My hands and feet would already be numb and slowly but surely everything would start to lose sensation - despite wearing a thick neoprene rubber suit.
It didn't make sense to try to swim to the shore -as it would mean loss of body heat so we divers just floated along and waited. And silently we prayed.
Obviously I was always picked up - eventually - but once or twice it was by a passing sailing boat. Luckily Cowes was just down the coast and that was the way the surface current would take us.
I took up horse riding because I reckoned it was a safer sport to pursue - until I discovered falling off.
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