“Surprised” is how I described myself when the Henley Herald emailed me to ask how I felt about my nomination for Woman of Achievement. Mainly because I never received the letter telling me about my nomination and their email was the first I had heard of it! But also because it is something so surreal and out of the blue.

Someone took the time to write a nomination as they felt I deserved recognition for my achievement in my sport and that I was “an incredible ambassador for non-violence in the horse world and for speaking out where others dare not.”  

When I started this blog, I said if it helped one person then it was worth it and this nomination proves its done just that. 

No, I didn’t win the award – Olympic gold medalists and World Cup champions are hard to beat when it comes to achievement in sport.  But it was something that came out of the blue and has kick started me to fight on. Maybe in the future I will get a nomination for courage!

Take a look at the vlog on my YouTube channel about my time at the awards: https://youtu.be/e_WoD_N3bKw  

But the question is what am I fighting for? Well, as it is said, the pen is mightier than the sword. I will speak out and encourage people to put down their sticks and look instead at building a partnership with their horse. I will speak out and encourage better welfare standards. But I will also talk about showing – a discipline I love but a discipline full of people keeping up appearance and not rocking the boat for fear of losing marks.

I am not a trouble maker and I hope never to be seen as one but I am different. And I sure have learnt to embrace that.

More blogs and vlogs coming soon….. Watch this space…..