The 2016 eventing season is underway, and the team at MJEventing are looking forward to an exciting year ahead! With two new horses joining the team, along with their owners, the first couple of months will be gaining a partnership with the new rides.

I have spent most of the winter hunting the ponies along with my boyfriend, Edward. This is some great 'downtime' from the competition season and a chance to recharge my batteries. We were lucky this year to visit some really fantastic places and meet interesting people. Laddy has been a faithful steed and carried me through the season to finish all in one piece.

Back in January I took on one of my new rides for the season, In Vogue II aka Myrtle owned by Brigitte Jaquillard. She is the first horse I have taken on that already has some experience and I am very excited about the year ahead. Myrtle and I have been busy training in dressage and show jumping which was reflected when we went to our first event together at Ilseham Horse Trials where she scored a 29.3 dressage and double clear. We only started at BE100 (open) as I had only been cross country schooling once on her and wanted to have a smooth first run and get to know her. Mum and I were very pleased that battling the snow, sleet, rain, wind and freezing cold was totally worth it. Credit to the organisers for pushing through mother nature. We were due to run at Tweseldown but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the weather but a week later after some glorious sunshine we headed there for some cross country schooling. Myrtle was FAB. We finished having jumped most of the intermediate course and I had a huge smile on my face!

The brief encounter of good weather we had, we took the opportunity to head to down to the beach to give the hunter's a good dose of sea water on their legs. Needless to say they loved it and I enjoyed being able to have a good canter with no mud in sight!!

Bringing us up to date, Easter weekend was Munstead Horse Trials. This was my debut event with Kate Purchase's mare, Willow Crystal Maze aka Crystal. Crystal requires a different way of riding from my norm, which is a great challenge for me. I enjoy finding what brings out the best in each horse. Pre- Munstead I took her cross country schooling and had done a combined training on her as well as some show jumping so although a little apprehensive we were ready to tackle our first event. On Good Friday we were blessed with the most gorgeous day, with blue skies and sunshine for the BE80(T). I had a great team that had come along to support and help which I am ever thankful for (quick shoutout to Lizzie, Edward, Mum, Kate and Mike). Our debut couldn't have gone better. We did a 31.8 dressage which we were delighted with. I know there were lots of things to work on but as a start it was a big positive. She then went on to jump a double clear and came through the finish of the cross country looking most pleased with herself!

Click here to watch Crystal at Munstead.

Day 2 and the weather couldn't have been more different. I guess that is England for us! Mum and I headed back this time with Skip for the BE100plus. Last year Skip finished with a Novice run so I wanted to drop down for the first event before she moves back up to Novice again. Skip has been hunting too this winter with her owner Bridget but amazingly it has only taken me a couple of schooling sessions to get her back for the dressage. I have also had some fantastic training on Skip for the first time and although still very young, she is a very exciting prospect indeed! She has a a great mind and totally remembered what eventing was about when we arrived as she was as cool as a cucumber even walking past the cross country. The dressage warm up was very busy which can make her a little tense but we held it together and pulled out one of our best tests to date (best novice test) for a 31 which put us 6th after dressage. A very rewarding test for this mare as I know how much potential she has. We will ignore the first fence-itus issue in the show jumping and concentrate on how beautiful the rest of her fault free round was! She sprung round. I am very happy at how easy she is making the height at novice. We made a quick change for cross country and she set off in a high gear indeed! I let her jump out of her bowling pace so she settled into a nice rhythm and made the time nicely. Having not been cross country since her last run in October, she is a very special mare to jump such a spectacular clear round. I wanted to use this run at Munstead as training before going on to a proper novice.

Click here to watch Skip at Munstead.

Once again I am very proud to have my sponsors on board for the 2016 season, their help and support is invaluable to the running and success of MJEventing.