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Catch up on what eventer Georgie Spence has been up to:

Welcome to the first monthly diary from young event rider, Georgie Spence. Georgie (19) is based near Chippenham, Wiltshire, and is currently on the World Class Start Programme for future potential Olympic British team prospects. She was a member of the gold medal- winning team at the Young Rider Europeans at Blair Castle in 2007 and received an award from British Eventing for being the rider under 21 years of age gaining the most points in 2007. In 2008 she is aiming to compete in her first 4* event - like Badminton or Burghley!

Georgie and the gorgeous Song For Gull, all smart and ready for a dressage test.
Photo thanks to Alex Colquhoun

“Happy New Year to you all! I spent Christmas at home with my family and so the day to day routine with the horses continued as normal. I am starting to get them fit for the 2008 eventing season and so I began by bringing them back into work using the horse-walker every day for the first week. I then started hacking them out before schooling.

I have got a few new horses to ride. One of them is a five-year-old mare called Libby and is owned by a lady called Judy Graham. She hasn’t done much at all apart from a few little shows and is quite a shy horse but is starting to come out of her shell a little bit now. We have only had her about two weeks and so she is still settling in. She had a few spooky moments hacking out, as do most youngsters, but is now schooling nicely and is well behaved. I am hoping to compete her in some five-year-old classes this season.

Along with the other new horses plus my own youngsters and my three top horses, Song For Gull, Trenear and Running Brook II, it looks as though I am going to have plenty to keep me busy in the run up to the event season. The next job is clipping them out as they all still look like woolly bears!”

Georgie at Blenheim with Running Brook II.
Photo thanks to Alex Colquhoun

Click on www.georgiespence.com to find out more