After 25 years of being busy as a mum, wife and having a career, I literally fell back into the saddle when my hubby decided he wanted to learn how to ride. Less than a month later we were the proud (if somewhat bemused) loaners of a 16.3hh Polish warmblood called Echo. Over the last 18 months I've fallen off more times than I care to remember, have learned that as a 42 year old mounting from the ground just isn't going to happen (!), I've also learned that I don't bounce as well as when I was 17...but more importantly I've remembered the joys of galloping across a field with great friends.

I've now bought Echo, and the pair of us are determined to crack this whole jumping lark. He's amazing and quite honestly I'm fairly sure he thinks his new mum is a total wuss as he wouldn't think twice about leaping over a hedge - so my challenge is that I need to grab a piece of his confidence and just go for it!