The last few weeks have been bedlam and I feel completely wrecked! Having been a 10,000 miles a year person for ever (with a pathological dislike of driving long distances), I have morphed into a 20,000 miles a year person with Horse Hero – mostly without noticing, except when we are in a filming frenzy, like recently!
We have filmed twice with South African eventer Alex Peternell. Alex is a great subject as he is so attuned to his horses and is especially good with youngsters. He’s also highly critical of his own riding, and hearing the mistakes he 'thinks' he has made is very educational. In the first session we made two jumping videos both with youngsters, one of which is already on the site and both of which are pure gold-dust.
Alex, who is relatively new to 4* level (Burghley last year and Badminton this year) is keen to optimise his performance and he has been working with sport psychologist Charlie Unwin. Naturally, this is of great interest to me and having failed to co-ordinate a session with Charlie to work on the psychology of the warm-up with Alex riding (we will do this at some point), Alex suggested I accompany him to an event instead.
So off we went to Highclere Horse Trials to film him in the Advanced class on his own talented AP Uprising (already the star of a Horse Hero cross country schooling video). 
Wow! What an occasion it was. Everyone who was anyone was there plus selectors for a variety of nations either making their final WEG team decisions, or seeing their confirmed team members have their final run.
My enthusiasm was a little dulled, though, when I realised there was a huge gap between Alex’s times and this was going to mean a lot of waiting around coupled with a very late finish for camerawoman Clare, who had given up her bank holiday to come. Not being one to twiddle my thumbs, I decided to use the time to canvass opinion from a variety of top riders on the subject of sports psychology as they returned to the lorry park in between phases, where they were mostly too polite to say 'no'! 
It takes a bit of nerve to do this and it’s not something I feel particularly comfortable doing but, fortunately, I had interviewed a number of riders before or been in touch with them about doing a blog on Horse Hero, so the only 'super-cold' approach was to Zara Phillips, but I couldn’t help myself. There she was!
We have also returned to Mike Eilberg’s to film the third part of the making of his new Kur (we have just finished editing it and it will be on the site this week). It was a particularly difficult video to make as we had to cut in some of Mike's own footage, but the video is a fascinating account of the challenges he faced in creating the floor-plan. 
There is also a taster of the finished Kur with Tom Hunt’s original music score. Speaking personally (and I am no dressage guru) it’s some of the best Freestyle music I have ever heard, so a treat is in store when we film Mike’s debut at the Dressage Nationals, in a couple of week’s time. Fingers crossed it all goes well for him and Monty. Whilst we were at the Eilberg’s we took the opportunity to film Mike working a couple of youngsters, including the world class (and much talked about) mare Woodlander Farouche. I watched open-mouthed!
We also zoomed over to Kent to film Horse Hero blogger Jason Webb starting youngsters and dealing with problems such as bolting and rearing. Jason is a complete inspiration. He combines great sensitivity with his own style of Australian horsemanship which breaks things down into very small units of understanding for the horses, with great results. As he is also a leading polocrosse player I was keen to have a lesson. To my surprise, I managed to pick up the ball at canter but the adrenaline really kicked in when Jason told me to 'mark him'. 
It was immense fun and it awakened my competitive spirit. The schoolmaster I had been given which looked rotund and rather sleepy, snapped into action and was a complete professional! So, when I have done with eventing, dressage and endurance, guess what sport I will be taking up?!!!
Talking of endurance, I was asked if I would like to film the last GB squad training session before Kentucky. Given my interest in the sport, I jumped at the chance and we headed off to Somerset to spend the day at Chris Yeoman’s fabulous yard. Team vet, farrier and chiropractor assessed the horses at outset, then each combination was put their paces in the school. Aside from the extreme fitness required in this sport, the balance, cadence and self carriage gained from schooling are increasingly recognised as one of the leading edges. 
If the horse’s way of going can be made more efficient over a 100 mile race, there is little doubt it can reduce wear and tear and help him pass the vet, which is necessary in order to complete. In the afternoon, it was over to the gallops where the horses were further assessed, and the riders' crews put through their paces in mock ‘crew’ and ‘vet’ gates.
On a personal note, I have had two further opportunities to participate in endurance rides myself. Rider Nikki Routledge has taken me under her wing and in good ‘Jim ‘ll fix it' style has arranged for various top people to lend me their ponies so I can get qualified to ride in Open and later, Advanced races. At the moment, I am doing 40 km optimum time rides and have already done two (which were filmed for Horse Hero). The first of the recent rides was at Barbury Castle, which I am more used to as an eventing venue! GB team rider Rachel Claridge lent me her mum's lovely black Arab, Zar, who was a bit of a handful until we got going. 
Infact, he suffered severe separation anxiety from the friend he travelled with, at the pre-ride vetting, that his heart rate was so high we almost failed - a nervous moment indeed! However, he gave me a lovely ride (extended trot most of the way), but sadly vetted out at the end as he was slightly unlevel, though a lot calmer! The sport is ruthless in this respect and I later discovered that the flinty going on the Ridgeway claimed many a scalp!
The other ride was on Exmoor again (where I did the media invitation class at the Golden Horseshoe this year). This time I rode Nikki’s delightful pony Mimi. With a thousand competition miles on her clock, Mimi (who is quite a little person but very regal) went beautifully all the way and showed her courage by insisting on being at least a nose infront even up the steepest hills. 
A clean vetting at the end, meant a completion and another ride to add to my card. Hurray! I have one left in Cornwall at the end of this season and if that goes well, I will be doing Open rides next year. Then, I fear, horse number three will be required! I am fairly serious about endurance and will be aiming to be at squad training myself, one day!
On other matters, I now have a completion date for my new house and yard (mid November); I have made a decision from the Woodlander beauty parade (as you will know if you have been watching the video series) so horse number two (the very cute Buddy Holly) will be moving in with Norris and me; and I have finally managed to find a saddle to fit Norris, who I am hope will shortly be ready for a few end of season events.
Did I mention I need a holiday?