I bet last night was a late one! "Definitely! Needing to catch up on some sleep and not having any pressing commitments I left my alarm clock unemployed, but it never occurred to me I'd sleep straight through till 3.30pm!! I guess I had only gone to bed at dawn and had also shut the curtains.. Nonetheless I was rather upset to find I had missed a stunning sunny day, I could have done the sleeping by the pool instead!"

What did you do instead of riding? "I sorted out some shopping exchanges I had to do at the shopping centre and then went to Alex Hua Tian's owners' generous party. Alex represented China but was terribly unlucky to fall at fence eight on the XC. I feel so sorry for him to get to do so few fences and to make one of his only mistakes this year in front of his home crowd - I really hope he has better luck next time!" Yes, he looked so gutted.

What was the party like? "His owner kindly invited all event riders to the smart Peninsula Hotel to what Alex had said would be a drinks party. When I arrived together with the British and Belgian teams at a relaxed time we were most embarrassed to find it was actually a very smart sit-down champagne dinner that we were late for! Very sadly I had to leave after two of the six courses to get back for Italy's only dressage rider's test at 11pm!" How did that go? "It was a close call when the taxi took me to the wrong part of the racecourse and communication proved very difficult, but I did make it to see Giorgio's lovely test. The judges were not very generous, but I was impressed!"

The blog has been changed to an interview to comply with Olympic regulations