Friends are reunited for Tracy's new challenge

She has also been introducing her former event horse, Dunauger, to the world of show-jumping and putting herself under pressure by entering the British Horse Society's coach of the year competition.

"Because I haven't been doing as much eventing this year, the coach of the year competition came at just the right time and the BHS opened it up to more people this year," said Tracy.

After winning the area qualifier at Bishop Burton College, she went on to compete in the final at Warwickshire College.

On the day of the final, she left home in Spofforth near Wetherby in good time at 5.0am but then found herself stranded on the M1 for three hours due to a bad accident.

"It wasn't ideal preparation and I had to dig deep to be in the right frame of mind when I got there."

The final involved teaching a dressage lesson, a show-jumping lesson and giving a presentation on feeding.

Tracy was delighted to be placed third out of the 12 finalists and won a trophy and 200-worth of training vouchers to use with the BHS. The winner was Tom Gawler from the Talland School of Equitation.

Bramham fans will remember Tracy and Dunauger competing at the event in 2008 when they stunned the crowd by going into the lead after the first day of dressage.

They beat some of the country's top riders in the process, including William Fox-Pitt, Mary King and Sharon Hunt, and it was a major achievement for somebody with nothing like the backing of these well-known riders.

All did not go so well the following day on the cross-country course however, where the horse was very strong or, as Tracy puts it, "like a runaway train."

Such was his enthusiasm that he missed out an element of one of the fences and their hopes were dashed. Dunauger (known as Dundee at home) was then ridden by Harry Meade for a while.

But after major problems at Burghley last year, Tracy brought the horse back home.

She has owned the distinctive dun horse, aged 13, since he was four years old and nobody else had ridden him.

"I'm thrilled to have him back, it's like a new chapter," said Tracy. "I've retired him from eventing now and I've started to do some British Showjumping and we're having lots of fun."

Tracy also has two young horses which she hopes to produce as eventers.

The four-year-old, Arabeske qualified for the Burghley Young Event Horse final and she also has high hopes of the three-year-old, Chloe's Spring, whom she owns with a syndicate and who is Dundee's half-sister. She gained a Higher First Premium at the British Equestrian Federation's Futurity series and was fifth in the final at Osberton International.

Along with her freelance work, Tracy is also the chief instructor for the Bramham Moor Pony Club, whose members are her biggest fans.

France's elite horsemen are heading for debut in London

THE famous French Riding School, Le Cadre Noir de Saumur, is coming to the UK for the first time in May next year. The school's debut UK show will be at Earl's Court from May 20 to 22.

Le Cadre Noir de Saumur is known for its incredible and complex horsemanship.

It dates back to 1825 when it provided training for the officers of the French Cavalry and gets its name from the black uniforms that are still used today.

After World War II, the need for a purely military riding academy had almost vanished, but the Saumur training centre survived in the form of a national riding school under the Ministry of Sports.

The instructors there are responsible for training

the country's horse-riding elite.