“Escapado, or Peanuts as we call him at home, travelled over without any problems. He came over with my groom and arrived fresh on Wednesday evening.

We came separately a day later on the plane, and after we arrived yesterday afternoon and I worked him a little in the evening. I rode him again this morning and he felt good and fresh.

At the moment I am not feeling the pressure of riding him in his old country in front of all the people who knew him when Carl had him, but we will have to see what happens tomorrow when I come into the arena. It might all be different then.

The horse has been really good in his last few sessions and he is in great shape at the moment, so he has every chance to do well.

Here at Hickstead the weather is typically British – it is windy and raining. I have just watched the Special and it was good, but I hope that tomorrow with the bigger competition, the atmosphere will be even better!

This morning I went over to the jumping area and it is really big, but we are used to these big shows; we have a lot of them back home.

Tonight we are allowed to ride in the arena, so I will take Peanuts in there and walk him round for a while. Tomorrow I will warm up for about 40 minutes before the test; that should be enough. We have just passed the vet check, which went smoothly, so I don’t have my time for tomorrow yet.

For now everything is under control, but there are a lot of very good horses in the competition, so we will just have to see how it goes!”