“This week has mostly been brilliant. The weather is fantastic; I think everyone loves the sun, I know it's far from ideal for the ground but it does make for a good summer. We had a barbecue here on Monday evening, another celebration in aid of Jasper’s fantastic win. We had some local friends come around, including Francis and Sam Whittington, Sacha Pemble and Emily Baldwin and the team dressage trainer Tracie Robinson as she was in the area. We had a lovely evening and a great barbecue if I do say so! Of course these are only possible with some really good weather...

I also went to London on Thursday to see my best friends for a meal; great to see them and is lovely to have an excuse to celebrate and catch up.

I have been riding as well this week - as much as ever! Also back cycling too after a mini break. The forest is starting to get busier now that the good weather is here and schools will break up soon but you still will only see maybe three people maximum each trip.

We went to Lodge Farm on Wednesday with Kenny to try a new bit, which seems to be successful. Fly to give him a school before the weekend and Nelson who I think it must be his first time. He was brilliant, a natural. Spooky to start but quickly got the hang of it and will progress very quickly I’m sure.

I practised jumping them on Thursday over some quite difficult angles which proved good practice. Some found it easy and some not. Good to work on, we cannot do enough of this kind of work in the school in my opinion. It will always help for accuracy and speed in which you can turn out in the XC field.

I had some lessons with Anna Ross Davies on Friday in our newly completed indoor school. We now have Softrack in the lunge ring and the slightly smaller of the two indoors. It is brilliant; highly recommend it, lots of 'give' without it being loose. I can't wait until the other school is done eventually!

The lessons were brilliant. Kenny was superb, worked much more forward and shows some real class in his work, he just struggles putting it all together. Amber is a little the same, we are working on her changes which we have found slightly harder as she is quite sensitive but they are starting to become more established. Bambi was also very good, working on her relaxation and trying to dissipate any tension. She too soon will perform some very smart tests.

Well, we tried to put it all into practise at my new local event, Eridge. I haven't been there for years and was impressed at the changes made and the efforts that had been made with the ground. We haven't had rain for months and yes, the show jumping was quite hard, but the xc was very acceptable and even the dressage warm up was spiked.

I had two in the BE 100, Brian and Fly. Brian performed a lovely test and just touched a fence SJ and was excellent XC, bar a small blip while distracted by the SJ warm up which ran right by the XC. I thought the 100 course was quite strong so I was very pleased with him and Fly who excelled himself with a 26 double clear, not bad for his first event and finished third.

Bambi also went well for a good test, one down (unusual!) and a steady clear XC. Bertie also performed a good test and quick double clear but sadly the finishing line failed to get his time which put me in sixth place (I think we were quicker but didn't think it worth deliberating!).

The intermediates, Kenny and Amber were quite bright having not been out for a while so my aim was to just give them a steady XC round trying new brakes. This I did, still not 100 per cent with Amber’s, but I will keep trying... They both run at Barbury this week so I am saving them for this (rather than a competitive run here) and hope it was a suitable warm up!

With no rain in sight I’m starting to think of holidaying some of the younger horses as I get busy again with the older ones, will wait to see next week’s forecast...”