A small fleet of youngsters spilled out of the lorry at Berkshire College today, I took Scar, Kiwi and Pennyz to run in the Pre Novice. It was a rather hot sunny day which took the edge off some of them (not a bad thing!). An old friend greeted me in the secretary's with "Do you recognise me?" Well how could I possibly as we only met a few times in Italy when I was about 12 and she must have been under 10! Lovely surprise though!

Luckily I got Kiwi past the spooky tents on the way to the dressage with much kicking, because minutes later one of them took off miles into the sky! Trade stand kite flying... we then had to negotiate jump stands piled near the dressage ring and initially he nearly jumped straight onto a white-faced judge's car! So naughty!! Luckily the judge thought it best for her safety to give me a couple of minutes to sort the issue out before ringing the bell! I'm glad I didn't have Anne Marie Taylor's judge who shouted at her for letting her young horse sniff the car! It's outrageous, the whole point of PN was originally to educate young horses! Anne Marie was incensed and set off to get the judge's name and ban her from her events (Aston-le-Walls)! Once in the ring all three of mine were very good, Pennyz even getting a 29 in front of her proud breeder, Sally Bullen!

SJ was eventful, college students had been recruited to steward and were clearly not coping. A three-horse rider like myself needing to be slotted into the long queue was the last straw for one steward and she burst into tears! All I said was that I was ready to go in! I explained I could wait if necessary but with three horses I'd then be keeping the whole event going til supper time! Kiwi was a bit flat and spooky and rolled two poles, Pennyz jumped brilliantly after surprising herself hitting the first whilst Scar went rather green and ran through a few.

XC produced three fantastic clears in the time, in fact Pennyz got penalties for going too fast with her deceptively long stride! This annoyingly dropped her to an 8th place. Kiwi felt forward thinking and brave for the first time and Scar was very brave too. By the end I had nearly lost the will to live, because another collection of students stewarding the xc refused to let me slot in, so I kept having to queue in the heat for 17 horse waits each time whilst Becky had to cope with all the rest at the lorry on her own. I was most unimpressed, you are never made to wait that long if you have several rides.

Took a day off from my horses, so some were hacked by Becky instead as I was teaching all morning at a XC clinic for the Winchester RC. I really enjoyed myself, a great group of riders and horses, some relativly inexperienced but all very keen and good fun. It was very satisfying to see them all grow loads in confidence and have plenty of laughs.

In the afternoon I washed and changed before setting off on the nearly 4 hour drive to Lincolnshire for the Leadenham polo ball where my friend Anton had organised a table. It was a fun party, and luckily my night was not ruined by losing Tiger who had jumped out the car window! As I ate supper I spotted a lurcher out of the corner of my eye trotting past a marquee window and instantly knew it must be her.. I dashed straight out of the tent and Tiger shot away guiltily as she saw me!

The next morning I got proof that dogs do know what they have done wrong hours later, because Tiger found the pre-ball canapes at her shoulder height in the sitting room before breakfast. I didn't hear of this until afterwards, and despite no one having told her off, when I called her casually in the direction of the sitting room, she shot off to hide behind the Aga and looked beyond guilty for hours! We found it hilarious!