I’m in a gap between competitions at the moment but that’s not to say that I’m sitting idle. Last weekend I took to the seas for the Round the Island Race, which is a yacht race around the Isle of Wight. 1754 boats gathered on the start line for the least sociable start time I’ve ever faced - 5:20am! It was a truly awesome sight though as the line of yachts continued as far as the eye could see and beyond. With light winds in the morning building slightly in the afternoon we completed in 9 hours to finish in 9th place in our class of 65 boats – not a bad achievement.

On the equine front the European TREC Championships in Austria are only three months away now so I’m starting to increase Wiz’s work to try and raise his fitness levels sufficiently to enable him to crawl up the Austrian mountains. This is quite a challenge when you live in Warwickshire! We’re back to interval training twice a week and in the school I’m concentrating on improving canter transitions so that Wiz will respond to my aids quicker.

In my remaining free time (!) I’m organising a bonanza TREC event with two other long listed riders in an effort to raise some money for the trip to Austria; if selected we’ll have to fund the trip entirely ourselves, which at an estimated £2,000 is quite a dent to the bank balance.