“I had a fantastic Sunday night at Horse of the Year Show once again. Caught up with Martin Clunes and his lovely wife Philippa and daughter Emily. Martin wants to be taught Join Up for his next programme on horses, so Monty and I will be taking a trip to his place in Dorset in November to help him along. For dinner I sat next to a boy band called Blake which was fun, I so wanted a photo to make all my girlfriends jealous but my so-called friend Julia Topham-Barnes said I was to ‘stop being such a groupie’ and refused to take one – probably just as well.

For many, HOYS marks the end of their horsemanship season but I feel I’m just at the beginning. When Rosie Jones and I went to Ireland to do a day for the BHS we managed to come home with two horses. What was great about it was when they arrived they were even nicer than I remember. We named the bay four-year-old, Banksy and the piebald three-year-old Corky.

I’ve got a nice bit of land on a steep hill I’ve never made any use of and it’s a dream of mine to put some nice youngsters up there as it’s the ideal place for them to develop. So that’s the plan with Corky, we’ll give him time to grow and develop and then make a start with him as a four-year-old. He’s a real sweetheart but looked a bit poor when he arrived. A worm test revealed he has hair worms, which is unusual as they are also a parasite of sheep, cattle and pigs. They develop into adults in the stomach where they feed on blood. Yuck! Needless to say we’re dealing with that and we’ll keep testing until we get the all clear. He was very good for the dentist and I think it will only be a few weeks before we seem some real improvement in his coat and muscle tone.

Banksy, the Irish Draft x TB, had only had a week’s riding when we saw him. He bucked the dealer straight off when he got on him but he got straight back on and then proceeded to show us how he could jump Irish banks! Banksy is Rosie’s project and she has started University in Sussex (she’s doing Anthropology) and Banksy is staying with Hilary Miles there (Hilary now owns Rosie’s former tour ride, Caesar) and Rosie fits in riding between lectures. It was always planned that Rosie would ride Banksy at the demos, I have Pie to ride and there’s Monty on Copy, we thought it would be nice to have a young horse with a young rider to show the ‘bringing along’ process.

Rosie and Banksy only had three weeks to prepare to go in front of the audience at the Rodbaston demo at Stafford this Saturday night. He had a physiotherapist check him all over soon after he was arrived and interestingly he wasn’t too bad around his body at all but he was a bit sore round his poll area which was worked on and we’ll keep an eye on. Once we had the physical go ahead, Rosie started his training in a relaxed but very focused way. Last week while I was at HOYS she entered him in a walk and trot dressage competition at Plumpton College. It might have not been the most accurate of tests (apparently a ‘little wobbley’ in places) but he finished seventh of 11 and the judge couldn’t believe he’d only had a three weeks riding! It’s so satisfying working with these boys (and Rosie) in order to help them reach their full potential. I can’t wait to see how he’s going now.

Tonight around 5pm, Hilary, Rosie and Banksy will be arriving to stay the night before we all go on the Stafford tomorrow. I’m in charge of dinner - oops, better go and shop! We’ll have so much to catch up on, so many ideas, so many dreams - I’ll make sure you stay informed.

The Rodbaston demonstration is now sold out but for details of other demonstrations, including Your Horse Live go to my website below.”