A tough day at the office, a spot of swimming and lying by the pool! Followed by a text from England to report that it was still cold but had only just about stopped raining, (cue smug smile as I sat in the sun)! After my hectic day we travelled to the Sha Tin stadium, stopping off at The Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui to pick up the owners of Brentina, ridden by Debbie McDonald for the USA. They were full of confidence that their horse would perform well as she had been training well all week. What a shame that she seemed to tighten up in the arena and not show her best.

Arriving at the venue we joined the crowds which included a line of singing and dancing Spanish supporters who conga-d their way into the stadium! Walking through the stadium I spotted a couple of suspicious looking gas canisters with blinking lights! I was told these were mosquito repellents so that the 20,000 strong crowd wouldn’t get eaten alive. The Chinese organisers did their best to get the crowd involved, giving a little introduction to the dressage tests they were about to see, including videos of the two leading riders overnight, which included our very own Emma Hindle! We were then entertained by Chinese dancers and then the over excited mascots and cheerleaders bounded their way around the stadium.

We had fantastic seats tonight, really close to the action despite the dressage boards being placed in the middle of the massive arena. The test were also shown on a live streaming on the big screen, so you could also see certain movements up close and follow the judges scores as the tests went along. We brought along our big British flag again, but we seemed to be surrounded by a sea of orange Dutch supporters, including one man dressed head to toe in a neon orange suit, complete with orange wooden clogs!

Then into the arena came Laura B on what looked like a very very hot Mistral Hojris. One poor Portuguese rider had to retire 20 minutes earlier due to his horse boiling over so Laura did an amazing job to hold on to Alf throughout the test. There must have been unbelievable pressure on her as she entered the arena and apart from one little momentary loss of concentration, which I would have put down as a blonde moment, she gave us all hope as she tried to demonstrate what they are truly capable of. Luckily she scored well enough to qualify for the Special on Saturday night so fingers crossed she can settle Alf by then and show us what they’re really made of.