Can you tell me a little bit about it? With

pleasure.

Oh, look at her.

She's like, the smile has got bigger.

How long have you got? So long story short, we launched the thoroughbred aftercare program under the Howden Way in December 24.

Yeah.

David Howden has got this brilliant mantra that whatever he gets involved in, it's largely to do with can you offer more coaching, better coaching, better access to more coaching.

not win um and those two could have coped with that i love that i love that honesty right final one now we've had many different answers to this this is a thinker what's the difference between a good horseman and a rider and a good rider

only university in the United

States? In the whole United States.

Wow, that's awesome.

In fact, internationally.

Wow.

Yeah.

And then I got my PhD in education leadership and policy.

Go right ahead.

Yeah, it's

quite an interesting one.

Having had such a hot, dry summer with so much firm ground, who has dared run? to you know the prep run thing has always been a subject for discussion do you wrap them up and get them to the target event or do you dare to run them and get them to the target event in the best possible shape but risk not getting to the target event you know has that had an effect on anyone's prep that this is fairly unprecedented you know the grouse is now green at burley but this is certainly the first bit of green grass i've seen for a month or three And that will be, you know, particularly from a dressage perspective, but also match ready for the cross country.

You know, you can't really beat running as a fitness opportunity for you or them and a sharpness opportunity.

And I'll be interested if that has an effect on anyone's performance.

Going into tomorrow, now you've seen how it unfolded today, and I know you've only seen bits and pieces because you've been very busy chatting, but who do you think will be leading at the end of tomorrow and what sort of score do you think we might see?

We've got to get something lower in.

I'm just going to rustle my papers and get my Friday running order.

And I'm just curious, through that transition of being laid off and starting your own thing and that journey for you, did those feelings or did those symptoms of imposter syndrome get louder or quieter for you through that style of transition and journey for you?

They definitely got quieter, which is actually interesting as I reflect on it now and I look back on it.

But I think it got quieter because...

No, it got quieter because when I put myself out there, I got so much back in return.

And I was able to get to sign clients pretty much immediately.

And I was scrappy and I talked to a lot of people and I figured it out.

But what I realized is that I was... getting work and it was all inbound and it was coming from my reputation and from the fact that they had worked with me before and they knew my value already or because I was recommended by somebody who had worked with me before and so it's kind of hard to have the imposter syndrome when you can look in a scientific and evidence-based way factual way and say okay what is the common denominator between all of these people um saying that they want to work with you.

I sense that I notice a lot of that sort of anxiety, people feeling stretched, people feeling burnt out, people, you know, what comes to mind there? What are you noticing?

Oh, really?

Yeah, and had a great time bombing around.

And then Superstition, my sister was sent to break, and, uh, said, "There's a really, really, really nice one.

I think you need to come and look." So I bought him, and then thought, "Oh, God, you can't own the good ones," you know, panic.

Um, and talked to the Greenleys, who sweetly said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, love to." But they didn't actually buy him straight away, and Piggy then came up at Oswerton and said, "I, I, I'd quite like to buy that." So I went back to the Greenleys and said, you know, about Superstition, "Do you still want him?" "Oh, yeah, silly me," they said.

So when Piggy had offered me, I think twice what I'd asked the Greenleys for, and they said, "But we'll give you what you originally asked for, but if ever we sell him, we'll split it."

Mm

Yeah.

Instagram and then also like the live shows and everything.

I was like, we need to have people that operate as like the person between us that can answer these questions for other people outside of us.

So like when, you know, upwards of like 10 people in a day would come That's not even a joke.

That's not even a joke.

For one of those businesses come to us like requesting meetings, needing answers, we now have like two people that sit as like the heads of those businesses that can answer on behalf of us.

Cool, cool.

Get the bag, boo.

No.

I, I...

We speak sometimes.

Like, I've kinda got, like, I'm kind of impartial to it.

I got out of a, a 13-year relationship about three and a half years ago, and I've kind of been through so many different things now.

I feel like it would take a lot to really hurt me now.

Whilst I was really shocked when this particular instance happened, and I was re- like, upset, I wa- it didn't break me at all, which is, I don't know if that m- has, like, some reflection on how I felt about this particular boyfriend at the time or if it's, like, me as a person.

Yeah.

Mm.

And so the act of, um, being a male actor, because of course we know that as far as we know, all performers were always men.

Women weren't allowed to perform on the stage.

There is this central thing about being a man and dressing up in women's clothing, and that being something that was prized, valued, um, you know, particular actors in the way that they would perform an Electra or, you know, my favorite always, Clytemnestra.

That would be the thing you would really be thrilled to go and see in a theater.

So you mentioned this, this term meta-theatricality.

Here in that moment when Pentheus decides that he's going to dress up as, as a woman in order to see these magical rites, it's something religious for him.

Mm

What's your take?

... lunchtime.

I think from my, um, comfy seat on the sidelines, it looks jumpable.

I think they're big jumping efforts, um, which can always catch up with you if you just have the odd uncomfortable ride.

You really wanna keep their morale up.

You wanna keep their confidence.

You wanna keep them on your team, and there are plenty of opportunities, as always, for really annoying errors, and that's been my vibe from the dressage so far.

I think she would've preferred to have been closer to, you know, getting into the mid-20s.