I have returned back from a very long weekend, in France! Sounds good doesn't it? The weather was great, a bit too hot for my liking.I ate great food, met fantastic people........NO it was not a holiday!!! What do you think - I am some laid back African who would just swan off on holiday in the middle of the season?? I WISH!!

I was Competing at the CIC *** world cup qualifier at Martinvast. I was very honoured and pleased to finally meet and compete with the rest of the South Africans who are trying to get to WEG.They were great fun and lovely people so it was a very pleasant team camp.

The travelling there was the longest and strangest journey I have ever taken with my poor horses. We had an adventure just getting to the show never mind competing. I have taken some photos so I can look back and think "oh I was sooo naive!" it took us about 18 hours to get there including the ferry, but it really surprised me how well the horses travelled, even Doni who is a bit of a stress head.

Because it was so hot I think I lost about 2-3 litres of fluid a day which meant lots of showering and a massive laundry bag (which smelt delightful, truly)! It is definitely an event I will be going back to as everyone was helpful and kind; the atmosphere was great and I think a good time was had by all. My performance was mixed. Having been 10 penalties behind the leader after the dressage on Tiger's Eye II, I pulled up to 17th after cross country which was great but then had a bit of a disaster show jumping which dropped us down again. So not a result to remember unfortunately. Though I am qualified to ride for South Africa at WEG, we are not sure about subjecting Tiger's Eye on such a long journey, so it's a question mark at the moment.

The journey back was fine until we were ready to leave the dock/compound and couldn't find the customs sheet, so they wouldn't let us out! All the lorries had to reverse back while we went to the office to get a duplicate. Even though I told Simon (also riding for Jayne Holderness Roddam) that I had given it to him, we turned the lorry inside out looking for it, until we admitted defeat and went to the office. While we there, I thought mmm let me just check his pockets myself and yes you guessed it IT WAS IN HIS BLOODY POCKET THE WHOLE TIME!!!! The only thing I could do was laugh!

My other competitions were Gatcombe were I did an impressive dressage on AP Uprising in the Advanced Championships to only ruin it with 2 silly poles down in the show jumping. Uprising jumped an amazingly good round but the only 2 fences he came anywhere near he had down. Oh well, we are NOT perfect, which I proved later cross country where, having jumped beautifully over the whole course, I mis-rode the last fence and hit it. Consequently, I withdrew Uprising from Hartpury 3*. However, I adore this horse and think a great deal of him and as he's new to this level and it's all about learning from our mistakes in order to become consistent (hopefully!). It's only a matter of time!

I am thinking of going to South Africa to do some training clinics, I think it would be great mix of holiday and recuperation for my knee over the winter because I know that although I am supposed to be resting it for the next few months I wont, I would do something silly like snowboarding behind a quad bike. Are all horse people mad?