"I had a fairly quiet week this week. My one outing was to Catherston for a Young Professionals Award viewing day. It was an achievement to get that far as only 18 people were invited to a viewing day out of all the many applicants!

With my Mum still out of action, it was once again a logistical nightmare as I had to be there all day but my horse, Delboy (Headmore Delegate) was only needed in the morning, so I drove in the car with Andrew following in the lorry. We arrived without me taking any wrong turnings, yay!

When we arrived, we were given a talk by the two coordinators, Rachel Hillier and Janet Horswill, before the day started. Then, when the ‘interrogation’ was underway, I was first to speak to the coordinators. They asked for an overview of what I wanted to do in the future and various other questions about my career.

Then, it was my turn to ride. Delboy was cheeky in his changes, as usual, but his canter pirouette work, which he had only just started, was exceptional. He didn’t go at his best but it wasn’t awful!

After I had ridden, I got to watch the others ride and we discussed them with Jennie Loriston-Clarke, who was training. To get her insight into other combinations was fascinating, she is a true master!

After lunch, we watched Lizzie Murray ride her Grand Prix horse, Catherston Springsteen. She showed us all of the Grand Prix movements and Jennie gave a further insight into training a horse to that level and told us how Springsteen had progressed. It was a real treat.

The final part of the day was doing some in-hand work for piaffe with Catherston Whatadream. I had never done in-hand work before so I really enjoyed learning something new and watching the beginnings of piaffe with a young horse. Jennie then long-reined her to show us alternative training, something she had never done with that horse before, and on one side of the arena, Jennie had her in shoulder-in! Watching the master at work was just phenomenal.

Although I didn’t get through to the final, I really enjoyed the day and learnt an awful lot. The two riders that did get put through to the final were both considerably older than me and based with International Grand Prix riders, so it has given me inspiration to continue to train and try again next year."