The first few days of the final week of the Sunshine Tour were blighted with torrential rain. When we all got up on Thursday morning the arenas were literally under about 4 inches of water. The start times of all the classes were quite late, and all the working in was in the tented arena. So about 150 horses warming up for the two arenas that were running, and any horses that were being exercised. The collecting ring stewards of British Showjumping would faint!!

Khalissy jumped at about 11.00, I think we can safely say she jumps into water perfectly! Fence 2 was in a puddle which surprised her a little bit, but after that she literally took to it like a duck to water, just touching the last fence. By the time Askeaton jumped the rain had nearly stopped and the arena was dry - she happily hopped round for a clear.

Arietta was due to jump at about 4.30 in the afternoon, by which time the rain was lashing it down again, and I decided to just exercise her, and not spoil the confidence we had gained by jumping in horrible conditions.

Friday dawned dry, and even a little bit sunny. Both Askeaton and Khalissy jumped lovely clears in the 1.20. Arietta didn't have a class on Friday, so we just gave her a couple of jumps so that we both were up to speed.

I was first to go in the 1.30 with Arietta on Saturday. This doesn't often happen in classes where people have two horses, so it was a bit of a novelty, and perhaps not helpful that the class started late, so we had a bit of hanging around before we went in. She actually jumped a lovely round, but had two fences down in the last line, and one going into the first double. She felt a bit tired, and perhaps the ground was a bit dead after it's soaking the previous few days. Askeaton jumped another lovely clear in the 1.20 to finish her tour on a good note. She is the only one of us who could have done with another week where she could have stepped up to 1.30, and Khalissy jumped a lovely round to finish her tour.

Arietta's 1.35 Grand Prix on Sunday started relatively early, at 9.30, and she was towards the end of the order. Walking the course I thought it was really up to height, and fairly technical. She worked in very well, and set off with huge enthusiasm, perhaps a bit more than necessary into the combination at fence 4 where she literally flew in, and I was rather wrestling away on top to prevent her from bouncing the first distance. In spite of me she jumped it clear and then settled to jump a really beautiful round, just getting a bit close to a stile four strides after a triple bar in the penultimate line. These are technical things that she needs to learn. There were only 7 clears, so a fast four faults was good enough for 11th place. I was over the moon with her. In October I was struggling with her ride in Newcomers, and in such a short time she has come on so much.

April did a fantastic job getting everything packed up into the lorry - we luckily found two very strong men just when we needed them to get the tack locker in, and we made a very efficient getaway at 5.30 on Monday, with an eventful journey to Toledo. Off we went again at 5.30 on Tuesday, and we were just 200 miles north of the French border when we had a double blow-out on the lorry. Luckily on the curb-side of the motorway, but then we had five and a half rather alarming hours on the side of a very fast motorway in the middle of nowhere. The Spanish police were brilliant, but the NFU assistance for Spain is managed from France, and really was very, very inadequate. The final solution was for Mr Gonzales to take me in his van to a warehouse in Burgos, where he and his very unpleasant friends pretty much forced me to part with 300 Euros in cash for a pair of pretty grotty old tyres. There were a few moments when I wondered whether I should have felt a bit more frightened, but I'm not sure it would have achieved much. We got on our way again, and although we didn't reach our intended destination Nina at Shelley Ashman arranged for us to stable at Dax which was a huge relief after a pretty traumatic day.

We had an extra two and a half hours to make up on Wednesday to get to Rouen, so another very long day of driving to the lovely Ecuries du Brotonne. I had a quick look at the weather forecast when we set off on Thursday, and saw gales forecast for Calais, so with the help of Mark and Nina from Shelley Ashman we managed to get on the train to get home early. So lucky we did as the port was closed before we would have been able to sail, and it was becoming clear that the air-lines on the lorry had been damaged in the blow-out, so it was getting harder and harder to get the air brakes off to start it. Eventually it limped home and we got everything unpacked so that I could take it to Stepney Motors on Thursday evening, so that hopefully it will be usable again soon.

Getting to and from the Sunshine Tour was a huge effort and cost before Brexit, and is undoubtedly considerably more effort, and ridiculously more expensive as a result of Brexit. But in terms of what we achieved the effort was definitely worth it. To step Arietta up so effectively and quickly is a tribute to the fantastic facilities, the class formats and the course building at shows like these. She jumped in nine different rings over the four weeks, starting at 1.20, and then stepping up to 1.30 and 1.35 and back to 1.20 if she needed a confidence boost. The courses are all forward and flowing, apart from the Grand Prix which are more technical. Khalissy jumped consistently well, and has become confident and competitive at 1.20 and is ready to step up now, and Askeaton jumped really well, and is also ready to go back to 1.30's now. I went off to Spain wondering if my confidence was going to be good enough, and whether my enthusiasm was really still there. I have come back confident and fit and ready for the summer ahead. Alex Hempleman gave me good support from home when things didn't go so well, and I had time to really work hard on the improvements I needed to make. The horses have had three lovely days in the field and will now have 10 days hacking and light schooling before going back into full work.

As always many thanks to April who did a brilliant job of keeping the horses in fantastic shape and looking beautiful. The amount of hand-walking, vet visits and long distances between rings makes it a hard show - luckily Cyril the bicycle managed to fit in at the last moment, and saved a fair amount of footwork. Many thanks to Saracen Horse Feeds who delivered my feed direct to the show, and my other sponsors, Protexin Equine, Just Equine, and MacWet Gloves who we couldn't do without.

Sunshine Tour 2022 Week 4