"Well getting here to Olympia has been a total nightmare! For nearly three weeks before the show our arena at home was under two feet of snow. I spent hours digging out a 'ditch' round the edge of the arena and a little pirouette circle by the gate so we could turn round. So in the weeks leading up to the show, Rimmer [Mr P] was only walked and trotted round the edge of the school - we hadn't cantered for the best part of a month!

A close shave

Last night Rimmer was rather wild in the warm up. I touched him with my right spur in a right pirouette - he took off and I nearly had a head on with Judy Harvey. So I decided that in test we wouldn't do spur in the pirouette, we'd just spin the front end round.

When we went in for the test, it was quite tight to get round the edges between the judges and the arena. Age 16 Rimmer decided he didn't like the look of the water bottles on the judges' trestle tables. Honestly, he really should know better by now. 

The test

Once we started the test he said 'right mum, lets go for it' and was rather over keen. In the walk I was sitting very still and thinking 'don't touch him!' I was a bit disappointed with the score we got as I felt there weren't any major mistakes, but maybe it looked ropey. We had to fight for every mark out there and I didn't even look at the sheet after the test as I didn't want to be reminded about my disappointing score.

With a lot of new judges coming through I don't think they feel confident to give us the higher marks - it is only the more 'old school' judges like Stephen Clarke who dare to give us 9s for the changes. Maybe I should just give up now! 

Frozen lorry disaster

The trip up was a bit of a disaster. We decided to come a day early to remind Rimmer about canter in the arena here at Olympia. We packed the lorry and were just filling it up with water when we noticed water pouring out of the cooker vent. Never a good sign! Anyhow with all the cold weather, all the water taps and the pipes had broken and even the battery had frozen, so we had to take that out and defrost it before we could start the lorry!

To be honest though, the easiest part of this whole thing is riding the horse. Our day is so jam packed and Simon my groom/husband/nanny has to manage me, the horse and both the children. It's making all the pieces fit together in order to ride that's the hardest. 

Backstage pass

We are stabled next to Laura B's fantastic horse Mistral Hojris - Rimmer doesn't understand what the continual fuss nearby is all about, he's usually just neglected at home! Alf's groom sleeps in the stables with him and she has been really kind to us by feeding Rimmer first thing in the morning.

This morning we had allotted times to go into the main arena, we had be be in there between 9 and 10.45am. It wan't too busy as some riders don't work their horses twice in the day, but Rimmer was still wild. He feels like riding a naughty five year old at the moment rather than the mature grand prix horse he pretends to be. After riding we had a tack cleaning session then watched the Shetlands. "Jessie!" shouted Annabel every time a black one looked like it was winning - her Jessie at home is a black Shetland. Next year she plans on winning the Shettie grand national, at the grand old age of four.

The kur

So tonight at 6.30 I'll plait, bandage and get changed then we'll be all ready for our 9.15 (think it's 9.15, must check with groom/husband/nanny!) test. I'm using my Blues Brothers music because I tried to change it last year and everyone had a strop about it, so we've gone back to it. Fingers crossed for tonight and lets hope Rimmer is not too wild!"