I am still buzzing from Sunday... Pennyz was second in her first Intermediate at Glanusk in Wales!! It was also my first Intermediate run in over a year! I had chosen this venue for her upgrade because being a new event I mistakenly expected a fairly kind course... instead I feel very much like I have negotiated a 3* course. (A whole level and a half higher!) I am glad my lack of sleep didn't affect my riding or encourage any blond moments!

The Saturday got more and more hectic as it progressed. I had the yard sorted just before some people came to see Sunshine (a BE100 horse I am selling), but then Rhona, my generous helper for the week, had a bad reaction to a wasp sting and had to take it easy for a few hours. By the time I had ridden more horses I only just had Sunshine sparkling again in time for more people coming to try him! Both people really liked him, but to ensure my stress levels went sky high he decided to cough and choke every time he worked in the dusty arena... so embarrassing! Did he really have to choose that day to be unhealthy for the first time?! I hate selling horses, things like this always happen. Luckily he managed to impress both buyers, who were junior girls and well suited to him.

By the time Rhona (who felt a little better) and I had finished washing Pennyz and doing evening stables for ten horses it was past supper time and Rhona was fading fast, so I took her to get a Chinese takeaway and dropped her back at home before going back to the yard to load the lorry and plait Pennyz. I got home at midnight, and still needed to pack my stuff! This was not ideal as I had to be back on the yard by 6am to feed all the horses and prepare Pennyz for travelling. Luckily turning all the horses out at night and having all the stables ready saves much time in the morning!

Pennyz did quite a good dressage considering she is new at this level. A longer warm up than planned (Pennyz gets bored of dressage after ten minutes, as do I) and tripping up on the way in didn't help, but a 35 was very reasonable. I was then delighted with a clear show jumping, everything felt very grown up in the tiny practice ring where everyone was trying oversized jumps, but Pennyz then bounced round the course so beautifully she made me smile all the way. I felt quite smug on a proper show jumper! This came in handy cross country too... I walked the course and didn't want to worry Sally (her owner) as we know Pennyz is a terrific jumper, but it certainly was a whole stratosphere apart from the Novices we have done! There were many very testing technical combinations and it was also a long galloping course, beautifully presented without a doubt, but just not an ideal first Intermediate. Many people gave me sympathetic looks when I said it was her first, and that I was out of practice!

The cross country warm up didn't help. It was great to see lots of friends, but everyone kept demolishing the tricky hanging logs at the second water as they were designed to be frangible and the course kept getting held to rebuild them! I walked round and round for an hour waiting, hearing tales of difficulties out there! Eventually we set off, and as she soared over the huge open ditch hedge at fence 3 I knew we'd be fine. She sailed over anything I pointed her at and is such a good jumper I didn't have to worry about stridings or frangible fences! I took two longer routes to avoid frightening her on demanding obstacles on her first attempt, but still only had 7 time faults without even pushing her! This, along with the show jumping clear, pulled us right up to second!! The competition had been depleted with many not surviving the cross country so we were all terribly proud! I feel grown up again, I felt adrenaline and almost nerves and loved galloping round a long flowing course again with a proper challenge!

Sally was bouncing with proud excitement, as was I, and I'm honoured to have jumped Pennyz' first little grid of jumps last year and now to have ridden her round her first intermediate. Rhona did brilliantly, making her white and sparkly and also being our personal photographer! My uni’ friend, Sarah, also came to support which must have brought us luck.

I managed to drive the lorry two hours home again keeping my eyes open before doing evening stables as quickly as possible in order to collapse at home by supper time! Even after eight hours sleep Monday morning was a real struggle! Judging by dawn appearing as I finish writing this, today is going to be even worse!