“Following our post-Nationals relaxation break, things are starting to get back to normal. All of the ridden horses have come back into work with us now concentrating on trying to get qualified for the Winter Championships, meaning getting back competing. However, last week, we had a different type of competition; we took my mum’s foal Davina, who is by Dimaggio and out of Ruby, our Rubinstein mare, to the British Hanoverian show for the filly foal class.

Diva in the making

Our practices earlier on in the week had not been overly successful! Diva, as she is known at home, thought that trotting round next to her Mum was boring and spent more time cantering off in the opposite direction! We were just hoping that in a different environment she would want to stay closer to her Mum. Thankfully, loading her on and off the lorry and bathing her proved much easier.

We were up bright and early on Sunday morning to plait before we had to leave at 7am. Mum and I had a slight disagreement about how best to plait Diva, but I got my way and she looked beautiful! We arrived with plenty of time before our class, leaving Gina (who helped me show them) and I grumbling that we could have had an extra hour in bed!

The bottom line

Diva was beautifully behaved and showed herself off perfectly, trotting beautifully next to Ruby as we had hoped. The judges commented on what fantastic topline she had, so that was 1-0 to me over Mum with regards to plaiting. She finished third in a very strong class and was the highest placed British bred, so we were very pleased with the result.

Sponsor support

I am very honoured to announce that I have two new sponsors. Dengie horse feeds, manfactures of Alfa-A, which is the main constituent of all of my horses feeds, have offered me some support, and Albion saddlemakers, manufactures of top Britsh tack worn by all of horses througout my career, have also offered me some sponsorship.”