“On Friday 3 April, I decided to invest a bit of time making a dressage arena in the field. While I have an all-weather school where I usually train the horses, I wanted to start working them in an arena environment as well to mimic the extra tensions of a competition day and to work through those at home. It’s working well and I am interested to see if my marks will reflect the hard work! Each horse now requires an hour’s work so my days are getting longer, but I love it so I don’t mind at all.

Afterward arena building, I took Jasper (Tankers Town) to the gallops at Newmarket and he worked really well. He feels extremely fit and really is a joy to ride.

In the evening, I had dinner at a friend’s house and this provided a rare opportunity to socialise outside of the eventing circuit!

On Saturday 4 April, I did a day of schooling and jumped the two horses competing at Weston Park tomorrow; they both jumped really well, which I am pleased about because I know the course at Weston can be quite large and pretty challenging, so hopefully I will be well prepared. The horses that were schooled are getting on well in the new arena too, which has to be beneficial.

I watched the Grand National – what a great race! I wish I’d put a bet on – my lucky friend won £500 after putting £5 on the horse that won!

My day ended with an early night (9pm!) in preparation for the early start for Weston Park.”