"When will this weather change? It has been more than horrible at times. The ground can't take much more and with several cancelled events already it would be good if we could have some warm sunshine. Please!

The week has gone so quickly as we have been out and about so much. I had just got back from the weekend at Munstead and then left for Somerley Monday lunch time with five. I knew that it didn't bode well when we drove through torrential rain all the way down. We were towed onto the stabling lorry park, it didn't stop raining the whole evening either; so disappointing as the organisers work so hard for so long and then a few days of rain ruin everything. They were lucky that it could run at all. It was dry Tuesday but quickly the dressage arenas turned into boggy ones as did the show jumping. All the horses performed good tests despite the arenas; it is quite hard to perform a balanced medium trot across the diagonal when you trot through a deep patch and then good ground etc!

Harry scored a very respectable 32, Romeo 34, Ken 35 and Amber a good result for 33. I jumped Harry first around a full up to height SJ track, most of the course was good but the ground that was deep in front really was bad. We got stuck in the mud for two jumps and had them down. He really did try though, as did Ken who was clear. I went to see how the XC was holding up, not too bad but was obviously cut up. I deliberated for a long time about whether to run them or not and decided that the SJ was too deep for my careful horses as I was nearly the last to go and decided Ken was running at Burnham at the weekend so not to run him and that Harry would be ok in the mud but as it was only his second run why risk him? Plenty more to go yet...

I did swap Imp to the novice hc as it made sense not to go back the next day. He performed a good test for 33, one down SJ and was going brilliantly XC until I perhaps didn't have enough leg on at the double of corners and had a very annoying stop. I just cruised around the rest to finish well.

We left Somerley and stayed at Guildford so I could have some lessons with Stuart Harvey the next day. I jumped all of them, even Imp, as I wanted to get a fresh pair of eyes on them. They were great, jumped exceptionally well, so we will be back! Was also great to have a positive come out of a rather depressing two days. We work so hard over the winter that I find it quite demoralising when the weather plays havoc.

The next two days were spent preparing for Burnham and riding all the horses I had left behind at home earlier in the week. I then left for my parents' Friday lunch time on route to Burnham. I'd been calling people to find out how the ground was as I decided not to go if bad, however all reports were good so off we went!

I only had Ken and Jasper in the advanced as so far this year these two are the only ones at this level, I hope for more soon though! The ground was definitely drier than at Somerley, didn't have to be towed on for a start. I think we had the best of the ground though as it had dried out with the wind. In fact the dressage was superb; Jasper performed a mainly good test for 33 and Ken a very good test for just slightly higher 33.9. They were very competitive in the section and I was quietly confident about Jasper as he's been second the last two years there. However all my hopes were ruined by three down in the SJ as the course hadn't been moved from the 150 horses that had jumped before us, and he basically got stuck in the mud in the combination. He has only ever had three down three times, all from gluey going. I then had my first XC penalty since Hong Kong as he misread the ditch in the coffin and left his hind legs in it causing it to stop us so we couldn't jump the rail out, I guess if you have a bad day do it all at the same event!

Ken was great, brilliant. In the SJ, just had the first jump down as I don't think he realised how sticky it was, then tried his heart out and jumped the rest clear. He was superb XC too, not too strong, I picked my way around the sticky patches so finished 9th. Really pleased with that, he is becoming a very brave boy. I left for Kent after seeing my family for the last two days, which was lovely. My mum has been amazing and cooked us a fantastic lasagne too, very spoilt!

I went to London Sunday night as it was a bank holiday and saw one of my best friends, had a great night and a much needed day off Monday. All systems go again for a busy week ahead, have the South of England next weekend, a local show."