Double clear! Jasper and I repeated last years feat to have the most amazing double clear!!
This enabled us to keep our 4th place meaning we have qualified to move up a level to compete at National Intermediate level next season. This is particularly good news to me as standing presentation is only compulsory in Novice classes and with my very old carriage we do not always get very good scores for this no matter how clean everything is.
Galloping round the arena on our lap of honour was the mo...
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Up early for the marathon this morning! After walking them in the dark last night they seemed much easier to remember this morning. The route was stunning and we ran into lots of dear this year (just like last year) all helpfully stood in the middle of a compulsory flag. They did move... eventually! I was not particularly pleased with our obstacles as I made a foolish mistake in the 7th which cost us valuable time but importantly we got round safely. I was less disappointed when I realised we...
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The weather here at Windsor is wonderful! I feel like I am back in Spain, although it is a bit chillier in the mornings!
We were on quite late today and Jasper did the BEST test he has ever done! He scored 45 and we are currently in 2nd place! We are quite a long way behind the leader but I am so chuffed with how well he went today. We also got 50/50 in our presentation so huge thanks to my 'Gleam Team' who are better known as my Mum, Julie, Ann and Kiera who have spent hours helping polish ev...
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Today we are off to the BHDTA National Championships at the Queen Victoria Review Ground, Windsor Great Park.
Jasper is bathed, clipped, shod and ready to go. He has also had his mane pulled and is looking very handsome!
His tail is all wrapped up to stop him ruining it and we are all loaded up ready to go!

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Yet more rain overnight! Having walked the obstacles about a million times yesterday and doing an England Team course walk my legs are pretty tired. Jasper however wasn't and flew round the marathon to score reasonable times in the obstacles, we even had the fastest time in our class in one of them. He isn't yet a 'marathon machine' but he is improving and thats whats important. The best bit about today though is that we came 2nd making us Reserve Junior National Champion! We also won the Bes...
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After torrential rain (we really haven't been lucky with the weather this season!) overnight the arenas were very heavy going today. The trot up was fine this morning and we were first to go, Jasper looked wonderful and did his best to drag me off somewhere while I ran him up. He then did a fantastic test to score his best ever; 52! Very proud of him! This was immeadiatly followed by the cones where we got a brilliant double clear! The course was tight and technical and we had the best score ...
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Today we are setting off to the Junior National Champtionships at Henbury Hall, Macclesfield. As it is the bank holiday weekend we were keen to avoid the ridiculous traffic that we encountered last year that made what should have been a 4 hour journey take 9 hours. We set off bright and early this morning having spent a week preparing for this event. Jasper loaded like a star and off we went. All was fine until we hit the M6 when a worrying red light appeared on the dash board of our Land Rov...
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Todays crossing was far rougher than on the way out there. However we are now pros at being 'commercial drivers' and knew exactly what we were doing in the Route Masters lounge. We also got through Border patrol which was hilarious as the window was level with the roof of the lorry. 90 min later we were back on English soil and on the right (I mean left!) side of the road. After dumping Jasper (who is galloping round the field with Kiwi) at Julie and Anns and flinging some stuff in the back ...
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Another 10 hours driving today and we are now at Calais parked up for the night ready to get a ferry home tomorrow morning. Ann and I went for our final ride around the farm scaring all their horses (you would think they had never seen another horse before!). We've also been playing with the kittens and cuddling their very friendly foal. Everyone else is leaving in the middle of the night but we are going to get a few hours shut eye before we leave.
 
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We were all up at the crack of dawn (again) this morning to collapse the tents (again) and we were all loaded up to go in less than 40 minutes. Jasper and Kiwi went straight in because they're pros at the whole travelling thing now ;)
After 12 hours we were back at Frankfurt where Ann and I decided to go out for a ride to stretch the ponies legs and got lost in the village we were riding through. Jasper took no notice of the freight trains that passed us as he saw plenty at Anns house. Tomorro...
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If I though we had had our fair share of the bad weather I was sadly wrong as todays weather has been every bit as bad as yesterdays. Having walked the course the organisers have decided the ground was being ruined after the first two classes and gave us just 15 min to relearn it. This didn't bother me and Jasper stormed round to almost make the advanced time but unfortunetly we had a few balls down due to the back end of the carriage sliding out on a few corners. It was very frustrating but ...
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Today is the Cones event of the ICKD competition and I am very proud to say they won Team Gold! Big congratulations as well to Ann who drove a fabulous double clear to take Individual Silver as well! The sun shone all morning but dark clouds were gathering ready for the FEI Marathon. I was almost last to go at about 4pm and it was chucking it down. Soaked to the skin and freezing cold we got round, navigating the complicated Section E (which had 17 compulsory flags!) to drive a neat, clean ro...
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This morning the heavens have opened for our Dressage Day. Jasper was a star today and did a lovely test to score 58 which is a result I was hoping for. Unfortunetly hi didn't rein back in the test, I'm not sure why as he tried to go backwards but the carriage wouldn't move. I can only assume it was stuck in a rut or something because he was really trying but we got rubbish scores for that movement which has cost us some penalties. We are currently in 11th place which I am really pleased with...
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Today was the ICKD dressage where Team GB has enjoyed enormous sucess with every member up on the podium! Big congratulations to Ann who drove a fabulous test with Kiwi and is currently lying in 2nd place.
Its all a bit nerve wracking for the FEI as we haven't even started yet but it will be all systems go tomorrow and hopefully the lovely weather will continue!

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Last night we had yet another huge thunderstorm  and it was boiling here again today. The trot up was this afternoon which had everyone feeling a little tense. I am pleased to say that all of Team GB ponies passed without incident and we all looked really smart. We also had another team photo shoot and got all dressed up for the opening ceremony this evening. It was a very proud moment for all of us. Hopefully it will stay dry for the ICKD dressage tomorrow!
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Today it has been boiling with temperatures above 35 degrees. We had a practise trot up this morning and had a great training session in the afternoon. Now we have been here 24 hours and are a little more settled we all ventured into Wiener Neustadt to buy ice cream at one of their adorable shops. Julie and mum went very early this morning as we has run out of everything. Emily and crew are also doing a blog on the BHDTA website so check it out. As yet we haven't tried the pool which I am det...
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Well after three long days of traveling we are finally here! We had the most enormous thunderstorm last night and it was about a million degrees in our tent. I got up and unzipped the tent in pants and t-shirt which made absolutely no difference. Ann and I went exploring round the beautiful racecourse. I rode Jasper bareback as there was no room for a saddle on the lorry. Today has been swelteringly hot so we bathed both ponies and let them graze in the sun to dry. By 2.30 we were all off on ...
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Today we were up at an eye watering 5am which is 4am England time! The picture is the sun rising over their outdoor arenas. We loaded all our tents and ponies and were on the road by 6am. After 12 hours driving we finally reached our overnight stop  in Vienna. Having upset quite a few German people on the way (they are not very good at waiting patiently) and attracted crowds of people wanting to look at the ponies at every stop. It's been a long day and Kiera, Ann and I have spent our time pl...
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After a smooth ferry crossing we finally arrived at our over night stop in Calais at around 3am! Luckily we are used to arriving in the middle of the night so are well practised at it.  Both ponies are travelling fine and after about 4 hours sleep we were up for the ten hour drive to Frankfurt in convoy with Emily who kindly dragged herself out of bed to help us get sorted so thank you  to Emily and Sue. The drive was uneventful with both ponies drinking their Horse Quencher and we arrived at...
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We have finally left! Jasper not impressed about loading but he is now on the lorry with kiwi! Kiera, Ann and I are crammed in the lorry living on our way to Dover to get our ferry before our first overnight stop over in Calais. We are praying for a smooth crossing as everyone apart from me gets seasick! 
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Had a great evening yesterday going to the cinema with my friends to see the Amazing Spiderman. It wasn't a film I would have picked but it was amazing and I loved it! This morning we drove back up to Anns house to deliver Jasper so he could be checked that he was fit to travel by her vet and did some more packing. We are now almost ready! Picture taken by Emily of her pony, Jack who is also crashing at Anns house with Jasper.
Isobel is coming tomorrow as she is kindly taking my carriage and a...
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Yes Jasper has finally had a make over so he doesn't look such a scruff! Big thank you to Vicky for coming and pulling his mane for me yesterday and to Sam of Hooves-n-Woofers for coming and clipping him today at such short notice! Yesterday Kiera helped me clean the carriage and today with the help of my three sisters we made a start on repainting it. I still have loads of it to finish tomorrow but I think we are actually starting to get somewhere. The picture is Jasper with his present; an ...
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Today is the morning after my leavers ball and after a late night curled up on my friends sofa I was up early so I could get home in time to do the ponies. After about 4 hours sleep (and a hangover) I was up driving Jasper for the last time before we leave for Austria. The picture is the view from behind Jasper out on Salisbury Plain when for once it wasnt raining! We then drove up to Anns house with the car piled high with stuff to make a start on packing for Austria so its nice that we have...
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Jaspers home from Judes today, who tells me he has been a very good boy. I went to see him yesterday when our farrier Jerry came to shoe him for Austria and kindly gave me a spare set of shoes for him. Tonight was my Leavers Ball so I was busy getting ready for that so thank you to Jude for having Jasper and to my Mum and Dad who went and picked him up for me. I had a fabulous night and my feet are absolutely killing me! It was great to see all my friends and get all dressed up for once.

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Today has been crazily busy with more preparation for Austria. Despite having about 6 hours sleep out of the last 72 hours I was up at the crack of dawn to take my sister to school (yup my family enjoys a luxurious chauffeur service provided by moi). I am not a morning person anyway so dragging myself out of bed was tough.

My mum and I were then off to see our friend who is printing the GB teams lorry stickers for Austria to okay the trial one she has done. It looks brilliant and it was so wei...
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For someone who never gets interesting post I had a very exciting letter from the BHDTA today containing my official union jack flag to wear in Austria!
I am so happy as I was worried I might not get to wear it and its fantastic to have our hard work officially recognised.
In terms of progress for Austria most of my team kit has arrived, our team lorry stickers are in progress, the paperwork is being sorted as is our route.
Its really close now and I seriously can't wait.
Our local paper the Sali...

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Had another great days training today with James Rooney but a driven one this time. We loaded the trailer back up and drove down to Anns yard. I had my lesson first working on the dressage test I will be doing in Austria. Jasper went brilliantly today, really pleased with him, going in a lovely rounded outline and really trying his best with his medium trot.
The picture is of us warming up so his outline is not as nice there but mum forgot to take any more pictures!
After behaving so well all w...

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Spent a fabulous day in Hampshire today training with Caroline Douglas in preparation for Austria.
Jasper was great and showed huge improvement throughout the day so I was really pleased with him. I got loads out of my lesson and I am glad we did as I feel so much more postive about Austria now. Big thanks to Caroline for a great lesson and for her generous hospitality. The icing on the cake is that today the weather has been brilliant, sunshine never fails to lift my mood.
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We came 5th!!! After 4 nail biting obstacles we held our position to come 5th!!! This is brilliant as I wanted to come in the top 10 but I never thought we would be placed! Jasper really stepped up the pace today and although we weren't the fastest we still had good times. A video of obstacle 2 can be seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2psHfsKscrg huge thanks to Fiona Powell of Inharness magazine for that!
I am so proud of him and how he coped with the event this time. Last year he had only ...
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Today we are off to The College EC, Keysoe Bedfordshire for the IHDT National Championships. After a whole winter of Indoor Driving from I was the higest placed junior in the Wessex points league we are finally off to the championships which is so exciting! We are travelling up there today as its a three hour drive and settling Jasper in as we are the first class on tomorrow morning. As usual we left about 2 hours after we were supposed to and met up with our brilliant friends Julie and Ann B...
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Woke up this morning to non stop rain, so when Sam from Hooves-n-Woofers arrived to do Jasper we decided to move the party to inside his stable. Today was the day where Jasper officially enters 'Boot Camp' in preparation for our trip to Keysoe. Stage one was this morning where he had a full clip and his mane pulled, so big thanks to Sam, he looks lovely and smart now. After a quick cup of tea and some lunch it was time to commence with Stage two of the plan, dropping Jasper off at my dressage...
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Eeeek so excited! My letter telling me I have qualified for the IDHT National Championships arrived this morning, after being the highest placed Senior Junior in the Wesses Region. Stabling is now booked so we will be heading off at the end of March for an exciting long weekend of Indoor driving at The College EC in Keysoe, Bedfordshire. This is one of my favourite events of the year so I am really looking forward to it. Now all that remains is to convince my school to let me go as I will hav...

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