"I've had another great Christmas this year - with my family around, it really is a lot of fun. I love the place being busy and full of life, which with two young children, my little niece and nephew being here, definitely happens! I have had help too; on Christmas afternoon, Jo, my cousin, kindly came and helped to skip out, do waters and feed and then on Boxing Day, I had my other cousin Richard and his girlfriend Heather working hard so we were finished in record time. Thanks guys! I also received some perfect presents - a camera so we can take lots of great pictures for the website, a Tom Tom so I can get around a little easier and stop borrowing everybody else's and some very nice hoodies. Oh, and some awful pink jump suit from the family - we might not have a photo of that on the website!

We went to watch Peter Pan on Sunday at the O2, which was quite good and the children loved it so it was a big hit. I was pleased to see it as I didn't know the story! I must've missed a few things in my childhood - I was probably too busy playing with horses.

The snow finally went though last Tuesday. My school is fantastic as I can harrow it and break up the surface so I can still ride on it. I recommend Clopf - it is a fantastic surface. The horses have naturally been very fresh and trying to keep them from depositing me has been quite an effort at times. Lunging has been the key, lots of it. Boring too, I even lunged them all on boxing day as they'd missed so much work and were just starting to be well behaved again. When the snow finally thawed was so good to hack them out for my brain and for the horses! Flatwork is great but the reason I'm an event rider is that I do like lots of variety. Let's hope the snow doesn't return now until I'm in France speeding down the slopes!

It seemed hard to get out of bed on Monday morning, too many late nights and early mornings! I'll had a quiet time until New Years eve. I'm trying to get back into a routine as quickly as possible as the snow has disrupted this somewhat. The horses have been lunged again, their lunging has really improved! They've also been hacked as much as possible. I like them to get out of their stables, and the school as much as possible and with the fields being too wet, this means hacking. All the horses have been very good, Charlie has stopped bucking this week and almost been an angel and Tweedy has been hacking well despite being terrified of traffic now. I was even able to jump on Tuesday! The horses really appreciated this and jumped very well, if a little exuberantly, and for me too it was great to get some 'target practise' in as I hadn't jumped for what seems like ages, but was two and a half weeks to be precise.

Jasper has now also been clipped and mane and tail pulled. He looks fantastic, he knows the season is starting soon as he's now all glammed up. There's only nine weeks to go, which will come around fast. I went to the pool a few times to work off the Christmas food (which was amazing, by the way!). You really notice the difference after a few days off but hopefully with my skiing holiday, I should be back to full fitness soon.

New Years Eve was a house party at my friends. I am really happy to see the back of 2009, I have had some great times but it wasn't not my best year and I'm confident that next year will be brilliant again. I have big plans and high hopes!"