I’M thinking of changing my mode of transport. Given the recent weather and the escalating costs of motoring it’s about time I ditched the car.

Part of this grand plan is also aimed at saving one of the many endangered species in our world. Let me explain.

The continual snow-blasted landscape has been causing a lot of problems for me and my neighbours. Like many people in the Wycombe area I live on a steep road. Well right at the top of it to be precise.

So when the snow came – and kept coming – driving out of my part of Hazlemere was a no-go. Someone tried it and, rather ironically, crashed into the still-full gritting bin at the bottom of the hill.

For almost a week, with a couple of respites, the road represented a glacier. They may be disappearing in other parts of the world, but we now have our own here. So the car has proved pretty pointless and it has made getting to work a trial.

To walk the 4.8 miles into the office would certainly be invigorating, but take some two hours or so. I could use the bus, but that involves an epic journey of Scott of the Antarctic proportions.

If they’re running at all, I would have to catch one into town, either a Carousel or an Arriva bus, and then another out to Loudwater. However a close inspection of the timetables revealed a lack of joined up thinking. My bus either arrived at the same time as the connection going out or involved something like a half hour wait.

So clearly we have a transport issue here so I’ve decided to buy either a Clydesdale or Suffolk Punch. This solves two problems in one hit. I can get to work whatever the weather and I’m doing my bit to save a dying breed.

For according to latest reports certain breeds of heavy horses are now listed as critical – making them rarer than the giant panda.

Eighty year old Harry Gotts of Cornwall is one of Britain’s last heavy horse breeders and he says that unless drastic action is taken soon they will become extinct. He is backed up by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust which has categorised Suffolks as ‘critical’, Clydesdales as ‘vulnerable’ and Shires as ‘at risk’.

Head of conservation at the RBST, Dawn Teverson, says: “Heavy horses are so large that most normal people with normal levels of resources cannot look after them.”

Given that most who know me say that I’m anything but ‘normal’ this shouldn’t be a problem.

Apparently there are only 100 breeding Suffolk Punch mares left which, says Dawn, is a tiny figure and even if you manage to mate them there’s no guarantee the mare will foal every year.

So if you see someone trotting to work on a Suffolk down Hammersely Lane in the mornings that’ll be me and I apologise in advance for any – how can I put this delicately – mess left in our wake.

For these horses have a voracious appetite. They scoff a bale of hay every two days and up to three bags of oats, a bag of sugar beet and six bags of carrots a week.

Now the only question now is, where can I buy one? Let’s start with ebay …