“It has been a busy week which culminated in Burnham Market International Horse Trials. I spent a lot of time on Monday practising my dressage tests, and gave a lesson in the evening. Tuesday was equally busy, and I jumped or schooled all the horses – ten in total – and then taught two lessons. In the evening, I went out to dinner with a friend that I have known since school and that was fun.

On Wednesday, I schooled four horses before going to a local affiliated BSJA show. I took Breeze and Jorrocks Curtis and one of my yard team, Tiffany, who also rode her horse. I just jumped the Newcomers and Foxhunter classes as a warm up for Burnham and both horses jumped well. Tiffany's horse is also very promising and jumped two clear rounds. The competition is only 20-minutes from home, so it was ideal and I still had time to go swimming when I got home.

Unfortunately on Thursday, I wasn't able to take Azeb for the novice at Burnham as he had a touch of colic. It was a real shame, but that’s horses! Romeo Z did compete and went quite well – he jumped a beautiful clear SJ and then unfortunately spooked before fence four in the XC, which meant I was off my line for the double of brushes and had 20 penalties – his first yet! He jumped around the rest of the course perfectly though, and I am going to ensure that I practice him with spooky objects near fences!

On Friday, I left for Burnham at 6.30am with five horses. Jorrocks Curtis was in the Intermediate. He was quite strong in the dressage and got a reasonable mark; in the SJ, he seemed unhappy with the bit and had three down, which was disappointing but he was a complete dream to ride cross country and showed real class, which is very exciting! I had four further dressage tests to ride. I had two in the 3*: Jaspers was fairly good, he was a little bright but got a good mark of 53; Ultimate Opposition started very well and then went a little tight in the canter for a 61. Breeze made small mistakes throughout the test, but is still a little green at 2* level and Mightaswell showed some very good work for a 52. I was back home by 8pm and the cleaned lorry and prepared for the next day.

On Saturday, I left for Burnham at 6.30am – this time with five horses. The 2 * horses were first: Breeze jumped a beautiful double clear and I was delighted with him as the course was tough and included a very large drop. Mightaswell was not so good with a couple run outs – he is still quite wobbly through his lines to narrows, so more practice needed on that front! Nevertheless, he finished the course very well and will have learned a lot from the run and it’s all about gaining experience.

The 3 * horses show jumped brilliantly; Ultimate Opposition is a superb jumper as is Tankers Town, and I'm very lucky to be able to enjoy rounds with them as they are so careful. Ultimate Opposition had a cracking XC round except for an annoying run out at a corner which gave me 20 penalties, but as it was his first 3* event this is not bad at all. Tankers Town was as awesome as ever XC, so lovely to ride and the rain had been perfectly timed to soften the ground sufficiently for a reasonably fast run. He finished 2nd in the CIC *** so a very good result. Back home by 8pm and then off to a 30th birthday party.

I had a rare day off on Sunday and I made the most of it by relaxing and spending time with my family – I am lucky as we are a very close family.”