Jack - Petplan Equine Ambassador

First thing to start with is that I’m all fixed after breaking my collarbone at the end of last season! I rushed back to riding as soon as possible and was even competing at 5 and half weeks. In hindsight I should have waited another week or two, but there is just no telling some people!

The time off riding really made me appreciate how fit you need to be to ride competitively. I’ve always been lucky to have lots of horses to ride and that has kept me fit. Breaking my collarbone was my first injury that I’ve had to properly go on ‘box rest’ for and it turns out sitting on the sofa, watching Homes under the Hammer and eating endless bags of crisps everyday doesn’t do great things for your fitness! So my New Year’s resolution was to join the gym and give up crisps for January. I’ve managed to keep up going to the gym and am strangely quite enjoy it – I think it must be my competitive streak, I want to beat my personal best each time! I feel so much stronger and fitter riding and if it improves that it’s got to be a good thing!

Right, onto the actual horse news. I think we’ve had more snow days this winter than ever before, which means we’ve already missed our first event of the season. However, around all the snow days we’ve been busy getting fit for the season ahead and have been to loads of combined trainings, arena cross country challenges, show jump and cross country schooling sessions. Newer boy Pumbaa (The Royal Jester) has been improving all the time and has come home from every combined training show with a rosette – including my first win of 2018! Jerry (Tambourine Man) has been feeling fantastic after his holiday, also coming home with lots of rosettes and we’ve had great fun whizzing around indoor show jumping shows together.

I’m so pleased that I’ve been chosen to be a Petplan Equine Ambassador for the 4th year running. It’s been the most wonderful few years so far and I’ve had so many great opportunities and am really looking forward to another great year! At the beginning of March just as ‘The Beast from the East’ arrived, Petplan Equine invited me to 2 days of Ambassador training, to catch up with current and new Ambassadors. As ever these days were so insightful; we had fascinating talks from the lovely team at JB Promotions, Claire Shand, Press Officer at London 2012 and the wonderful Lucinda Green, whose stories I could listen to all day!

All my fingers and toes are crossed that the sun will show his face soon and we can go eventing!