Written by Jess Thompson

As always show morning means getting up before the sun. I sent up my usual morning prayer that a certain four legged fiend would get on the float and after success was on my way.

Pulling in and finding a convenient parking spot close to my stable was the marker for the mad rush that would be the next five hours. In record time I sewed in my plaits, pointlessly ran a brush over my moulting horse and saddled up for my first test.

After being assured I had plenty of time to warm up Tommy by the steward, I made it all of six steps before being called into the ring... yay. But considering the lack of warm up time and reminder to Tommy that my hands are not for carrying him, we managed a not too disastrous test.

This was where the real mayhem started. Time to prepare his costume for the freestyle. Sometimes it's easy to forget just how good my boy is and how much he puts up with... he was covered in blue paint and glitter. Meticulously painted to make him look like the Cheshire Cat. In the end there were four of us trying to get him ready for my class in an hour and a half. The poor sod even let me paint his face... after an argument or three.

Finally with minutes to spare he was ready and I could get dressed. The fact I still had to find a way to get on him was slightly overlooked. Tommy was not impressed by my mad hatter hat one bit (for those who did not see the monstrosity on my head, I couldn't even reach the top once it was on). Once again four people held him still while I got on in the hope that once he couldn't see the hat he would relax. Success. Now to scare the daylights out of every horse we passed (sorry not sorry).

I actually got a warm up this time which was nice and it got me acquainted with the extra weight on my head. There would be no vigorous salutes to the judge today.

Into the indoor arena for the first time with Tommy. I couldn?t be prouder of how brave he was. The judge and penciller commented on my outfit the former telling me I make a great Willy Wonka... no comment.

We rode perhaps the best test we have done considering Tommy hasn?t done dressage for a long time and that giant hat was falling off by the time canter came along.

Now I could relax, do my helper duty and watch the amazing other freestyles and tests ridden by the other horsemens team. It's really great seeing the comradery within the club and how we all go to watch each other.

While we waited for the Quadrille to start, I realised I had forgotten something... washing that paint off Tommy. After a lot of scrubbing he came up semi not blue and well and truely sick of me being near him.

A highlight of the day was having the whole club watch the quadrille and cheer our four competitors on. It was awesome ladies! You should be so proud of the work you put into that.

Well done to everyone who competed at the challenge. You should all be super proud of the effort you put in and not to mention the amazing costumes everyone had! I already can't wait for next club season.