As you all know, I am on the big book tour at the moment and have been in Wellington, Blenheim and Nelson and am now back in Wellington again. Lots of photos to come so keep an eye on my blog. All I could think about yesterday though as I was touring was Andrew Nicholson – who fell at the final fence at Gatcombe on the weekend. He was leading after winning the dressage and was going clear cross country as usual until he fell at the final fence when his horse tripped. The news reports told us nothing at first other than he had a serious neck injury and was in hospital and everyone has been so worried. Such a relief to wake up today and read reports that he has had successful neck surgery and has “a full range of movement”. Get well soon Andrew! Everyone is thinking of you and we hope you are back out there on the cross country in winning form in no time….

It was a 4.30am start to get to Hakaru Pony Club for the last event of the competition season – the Area teams ODE. My daughter and her pony were stepping up to ride 95cm for the first time. Very exciting! They were sitting in third place after the dressage, and went clear across the massive and technical cross country course to hold their position. But then the show jumping was less good – two rails and a refusal and they fell to 9th! It can happen to anyone though – poor Andrew Nicholson! Although he is ranked World Number One in eventing he has never, ever won the Badminton Horse Trials and this year he led the dressage and went clear cross country and then his stunning chestnut Nereo took three rails in the show jumping and fell back to sixth! Beaten by his arch rival William Fox-Pitt who won it for the second time. Big congrats to the wonderful William. It was some consolation for my daughter to know that even the superstar riders can take a rail and lose the dream. Will Andrew Nicholson ever win Badminton? My very favourite horse was there at Badminton too again this year – Nicola Wilson’s Beltane Queen. I LOVE that mare – she is the only coloured horse I know competing at Advanced and she is sassy and has such an amazing courage to her cross country! Take a look at her here…

In between working on the new book (The Girl Who Rode The Wind – out in August) I have spent the long summer months travelling around New Zealand playing groom to my daughter (well I wasn’t grooming her obviously – I was grooming her superstar pony Miss Maddison). In March they rode dressage at Horse of the Year in Hastings and went to St Peters School to compete against all the North Island Secondary Schools in the level 3 dressage. By the end of March it felt like it had all been dressage-dressage-dressage for months and we were desperate for some jumps. But not as desperate, it turned out, as Miss Maddison. She got such a shock to finally be doing the show jumping phase at Coatesville ODE she jumped every fence with boundless energy and far too much wild enthusiasm! Incredibly they still went clear – and clear on the cross country too and won their class! I agree with Miss Maddison – so much fun to be jumping again!

Talk about making an impact! There was a 6.3 earthquake while I gave my talk on Monday at Gisborne’s Te Wharau school! The classroom wobbled and undulated for a bit but the kids didn’t seem to mind so I kept talking! I also visited Central School and Te Hapara and somehow managed to find the time to visit my old friends Vicki, Rosie and Sarah and their horses. That’s me in the pic with Ziggy the chestnut, Rosie and her pony Ernie. Ernie and Rosie have a lovely bond – he is a very cheeky but talented boy and reminded me so much of Comet (from Comet and the Champions Cup – a book that is actually set in Gisborne). From Gisborne I travelled on to Paraparaumu  and talked to the kids at Paraparaumu Beach School. I’ve left lots of signed copies of the book behind at PaperPlus Paraparaumu – and also PaperPlus in Gisborne and in Feilding at Paperplus too – so if you missed out on your copy then you know where to find them!

It was pretty awesome that the first school I visited on my book tour was MY OLD PRIMARY SCHOOL.

I went to Ngaruawahia Primary in the Waikato from year 5 to year 8 and it was my time at Ngaruawahia Pony Club that inspired my very first series Pony Club Secrets – so it was very cool to be able to visit the school and meet everyone all these years later.

After Ngaruawahia Primary, we visited Southwell School in Hamilton – the kids there were really amazing. Then on to Marion Catholic School – also incredible and a signing at Books for Kids. Thanks to Grace who came to get her book signed for her birthday and gave me a bran muffin that she had baked at school that day – very yummy!

The next day we visited Cambridge School. You know how the school houses in Harry Potter all have names like Gryffindor and Slytherin? Well at Cambridge School the house names are all the names of famous horses – including Sir Tristram and Charisma! It really is one of the horsiest places I have ever been! We also visited the equally horse-mad kids at Pirongia School and did a book signing at Paper Plus Te Awamutu – thanks so much to everyone who came especially the Waikato Dio girls who came all that way and Sophia and Madeleine Stratford!

In between all of this there was time for shopping – I bought a lovely new black leather bridle and Sandra, my publicist, bought a horse ball (see pic) for her young foal Juno to play with!