“I've now been in Portugal for five days; everyday has been sunny and warm, heaven! I hear the weather is very cold back home and am not sorry I've missed that!

The horses travelled really well and have been very fresh since arriving! The place is lovely, great hacking, good working in areas for dressage and jumps to practice over...

Laid back

It is pretty laid back here too, with a few days off before we started it's great to work the horses a couple of times a day to help them relax. It's their first time out and are three-day fit so need quite a bit of 'relaxation'.

Amber’s best test

Amber performed her dressage test yesterday, she probably did her best test so far, no mistakes and very settled so was disappointed to get a 55; one judge had me 10% lower than another so this influenced her mark greatly. Harry did a good test with one small mistake – he changed in his counter canter - but scored 50 which is about 16th. Not too bad for the first ones, there are also 4* horses in their section so it’s highly competitive!

Bertie tried his hardest in the 1* but finds the counter canter circle too hard still! The rest of his test was very promising, his dressage needs more time but has huge potential.

Cross country

Saturday here was xc day as usual. I was really excited to be going xc again, it makes such a difference having sunshine and warm weather to inspire you, rather than sometimes feeling that March is way too early to start eventing, usually horribly cold and/ or raining with deep going. Not my idea of a favourite day out eventing! So far here has been very kind to us. There was a little rain overnight Friday to soften the ground which rode quite well.

Amber was first of mine in the 2*, she  was very keen! Very strong the first few fences but settled by about fence nine. The second half of the course she was much easier to ride and she was fantastic. There was a reasonably large log into water which she ballooned! Feels good for next week.

Keen Harry

Harry was later on, he too was very keen! Likewise took a few fences to settle but went really well. I took them both a little steadier as was their first run and really only a warm up for next week. He finished really well, felt like he had hardly done anything at all so bodes well for next weeks CCI.

Bertie was in the 1*, the course wasn't very big and he could do with a bit more of a challenge but was superb. Especially into the water where he too ballooned, which is very encouraging after our fall a few weeks ago as this doesn't seem to have affected him thank goodness! I went quite positively but had four time faults, but delighted with how they all went. You are never too sure how they will come out from year to year but this year they seem great.

They all trotted well and show jumped too. Amber jumped a lovely clear, Harry was a little over bold at one and had it down in front. Jumped really nice rounds though, very encouraging.. Bertie also jumped well, was rather keen still! We had one down, I think they all needed slightly bigger fences to back them off.

Harry finished 18th with at least 10 ahead of him 3* or 4* horses, Amber was 28th and Bert 28th. The placings were very close, nothing between them.

A wait for the CCIs

We have a couple of days off now waiting for the CCI's this week. This will be spent schooling and working on parts of the tests that need improving.

Also time is spent relaxing, we went to the most amazing place last night which served king prawns with bacon that had been barbecued and steak you cooked yourself on a hot plate.  Unbelievably good!

Have time for a bit of shopping today and tomorrow as there is a massive Freeport here! I just hope the weather stays as good."