Sarah Brown, the wife of former prime minister Gordon Brown, is competing in a modern day pentathlon to raise money for charity - and has persuaded ITV’s Lorraine Kelly to join her in the challenge.

New riders

Neither Sarah or Lorraine has done more than sit on a pony once or twice in their youth, but they are learning how to tackle a course of jumps in just three lessons. Steve Banting at Chessington Equestrian Centre has been selected as the instructor for the job, and Patchwork has proved to be Sarah’s perfect partner.

“The pair of them are just brilliant,” Sarah wrote in her training blog. “In my last lesson something clicked, and I understood what the fuss is about in the relationship between horse and rider; there is a constant conversation, mostly without words. I also understand that I am actually only the navigator – I am sitting on the pilot!”

A big ask

The competition takes place at the end of February at Pentathlon GB’s High Performance Centre at the University of Bath, when the pair will be expected to complete a small course of jumps on a horse that they’ve never sat on before. This is in addition to is a 3km run, with stops every 1km to shoot at five targets with a laser hand gun, plus fencing and a 200m swim.

“It’s a huge ask, but they’re both trying really hard,” says instructor Steve. “They were very nervous to start with but when Sarah came down last week she was much more confident. We managed to get lots of little canters in and she even popped over a little fence at the end of the lesson. What they’ve achieved so far is superb, and Sarah is already saying that she would be keen to carry on with her riding after the event.”

Olympic challenge

Lorraine and Sarah’s efforts are part of the Gold Challenge, which will see thousands of people all around the UK taking on Olympic and Paralympic sport-based challenges to raise money for a number of different charities.

Sarah’s chosen charity, PiggyBankKids, is one she founded in 2002 with the aim of giving all children in the UK the opportunity to live healthy and happy lives.

To sponsor the pair go to their JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/sarahandlorraine.