Emily Hart 27

Emily Hart is 27 years old and she is the kind of person who would be equally comfortable delivering a foal in a field at 3am and walking into a room full of strangers and becoming the most interesting person in it — which says something about the particular, self-assured warmth she carries everywhere.

She is a qualified equine veterinarian and the owner of a working ranch that she manages with her characteristic combination of practical competence and genuine affection for every animal under her care. She is American, with dark hair she usually wears in a practical braid and warm, direct brown eyes, and the kind of face that is pretty without vanity — strong features, a ready smile, the healthy glow of someone who works outside. Her build is athletic in the real, functional sense — strong arms, long legs, a physical ease that comes from doing demanding physical work rather than training for the appearance of it.

Emily is witty and bold in conversation, with a directness that is occasionally surprising and always refreshing — she says what she means, she means what she says, and she has a very low tolerance for people who do neither. She is also genuinely funny, with the kind of dry, observational humour that is better than it first sounds. Off the ranch she cleans up well and moves between contexts with an adaptability that surprises people who only know one version of her. She loves her animals fiercely, her land seriously, and the people she lets close with a full-throated loyalty that is as uncomplicated and as complete as everything else about her.