"Well, as the countdown to Christmas is on, I'm still cramming in as much as possible. With nearly all my shopping done, I can relax a little more though. The weather this week has been unbelievably bad, I can't remember a winter so wet for a long time. The horses don't get out in the field and they are starting to get quite buzzy with the wind and rain too. The weather also means I have to ride on the roads a lot more as we have clay here. I really hate riding on the roads as there seem to be more inconsiderate drivers than the other way around unfortunately. I had an incident with a young boy riding a scooter too fast past my young horse and he nearly took us out. Not good, and the poor horse is now terrified of traffic. Please, please can we have some sunshine again soon!!!

I went to Addington on Tuesday again; I thought it would be quiet but it was incredibly busy. I didn't jump until 2pm and I had four classes to do. However, it was well worth it as they went superbly, Tweedy was fifth in the 1 05, Imp third in the Newcomers, Amber third in the 1 15 and won the Foxhunter. Not a bad day. Kenny also jumped clear in the 1 15 and just had the first in the Foxhunter. We arrived back at home at 9pm though, quite late for a winter trip out!

We've been working on the young horses too. Charlie is rapidly changing shape and looking like a smart event horse now, Bertie is Jaspers 'mini-me' apart from that he's bay. Their characteristics are unbelievably similar, which is fantastic and hopefully he will be as good. Bomber is getting really quite smart on the flat and his jumping is improving rapidly too, he has also grown and filled out and is a very attractive horse. They will all be ready for some shows end of Januaryish so that will be fun.

We've also had our dinners this week, my owners' dinner was lovely. I always enjoy saying thank you to them for their support over the year and this is a small token of my appreciation. This also applies to my staff; we had dinner and then went out for some dancing, which I love.

The weekend was rather tame as I'd had my quota of alcohol for the next month (and late nights!) and enjoyed a weekend working the horses here, still in rubbish weather though! This I can now cope with now though, as I've booked my holiday to the Caribbean for a week and I can't wait!"