“It seems as though my holiday was a long time ago now; I have crammed in as much as possible since being back from sunny Thailand! The day after I went to Greenwich (with slight jet-lag) for a day to have a look around the site. There isn't too much to see as all the arenas and fences are going in about five weeks before it starts, although the terrain is pretty serious and needed to be viewed. The main arena will have a wonderful view over London and will be fairly spectacular! The stadium will be huge, big enough for 22,000 people! The terrain itself is incredibly undulating with a very steep hill and as the park isn't enormous, then I suspect we will be back and forth across it needing a horse that can go 0 to 60 in a few seconds. It looks very exciting anyway and has made it all the more real, hence the heavy campaign this week - the countdown is on!

Saddle sore after my holiday

I rode seven horses the first day back; they all went really well, the girls have done a great job of looking after them. I then rode nine the next day and so I had what I can only describe as 'saddle soreness' - something I haven't had for years and was really not very comfortable! I now sympathise with anyone who is learning to ride! After overdoing it slightly, I left for Newmarket with a few horses for their pre-season checks. All looks good, so they are ready for an exciting year I hope. I also met up with the BBC for an interview and videoing of us at the vets and at the gallops. This is for an update of 'one to watch' in the run up to 2012, rather fitting as I’d just been to see the venue. Rossdales were very accommodating and let us film various things, e.g. scanning, trotting up and Sarah B-S did a fantastic interview, thank you! I cantered Harry and Amber up the Links gallops, they went really well, but it was only their first canter back so nothing too crazy. I was surprised how easily they went up the hill, although it isn't too much of a hill compared with our local ones now!

Teaching and great meals

As I was back in Suffolk I was incredibly spoilt by my sister and David and Sue Howard cooking me fantastic meals. It is nice coming back and being spoilt. My parents were in Greneda sunning themselves so it’s left to others to look after me! It's lovely to catch up with everyone, but it goes too quickly and I’m off again. In between meals, I taught at Fenning Farm for the day, we had an eventing clinic which was great fun. We had groups of five, different standard groups which worked well. It was the windiest day ever and I was amazed how I had a voice left afterwards! I hope everyone else enjoyed it too, it was a good day.

Lunge lessons

When we arrived back we had a new addition for the week, Sarah who was on work experience with us. I think she had a great week, I gave her a lesson on Imp and worked on her position mainly which really helped - she improved dramatically in a day! We decided that we are all to have lunge lessons again next week, as you can never stop improving your position. I've had lessons with Anna this week with Bertie who is just unbelievably brilliant and tries his heart out, Harry, ditto and has now nearly established his changes! Amber with whom we are carefully working on more expression and cadence and Red who is really starting to relax throughout all his lateral work and made big improvements. They are all also becoming much stronger in their bodies too which is undoubtedly helping. We are also feeding the new Baileys 'Performance balancer' which contributes to this too. I am very proud to say my horses look fantastic at the moment!

Jumping with Joao

I had jump lessons with Joao as well; again, I rode Harry who, with his new established changes, makes everything much easier as he used to be disunited often to a fence off a tight turn. Now he is balanced and able to take off with full power and the result is that his jump has significantly improved. I jumped Red too, he is also learning to change and is happy to be more forward than previously and so between fences he is beginning to think less about my leg and more about the fences which is also improving his jump. These two boys should have a great season! I had my first lesson with Ken, we worked on riding him more forward as sometimes as he is strong I can ride him too quietly to keep him quiet, but by riding him stronger myself he then started to accept this and jumped really well. He finds it all very easy and perhaps as he is so brave could respect the fences a little more. By the end of the session he was really jumping: Luhmuhlen, here we come!

I took Charlotte for a test drive in 'Rita' today. She passed her HGV a few weeks ago and the roads weren't ideal to practise on with snow and ice, but as they now off we went! I was very impressed! A good driver, but I hope that Rita still looks the same in a few weeks time! I am very much looking forward to having some help... More sleep at last!

I am preparing to go XC schooling tomorrow so hopefully it won't be too wet and cold, that's not ideal preparation for Portugal!”