Brilliant Brit eventer Laura Collett reveals all...

Top British eventer Laura Collett had the fastest time in the Amlin Plus Eventing Grand Prix at Hickstead this year, but eventhough she had a few fences down she was still placed strongly in 8th position.

Horsemart’s Nicola Strong spoke to her before the event to get the inside scoop on how she got to be so good, so quickly.

HM: Who are you riding today?
LC: A horse called Noble Bestman [his stable name is "Steve"].

HM: Your very fond of him aren't you? We know this because we follow you on twitter.
LC: Yes, he’s my favourite.

HM: How’s he going at the moment?
LC: Yes he's good, he's actually just had a little holiday, he went to Bramham to compete which was his last one for a while, so he's had a bit of time off so is very well and fresh.

HM: Ok so how do you rate your chances today?
LC: Yes I don't know, Iie never done this class before. He did it two years ago with Michael Whitaker, so he's been round. But it’s just one of those classes that you don't know what’s going to happen.

HM: Have you done any particular preparation for this event?
LC: No not really, we went show jumping on Tuesday just to give him a bit of an outing. But there’s nothing really in particular that you can practice that’s like this. I know he's good at cross country and a good show jumper, so hopefully he will be ok.

HM: So there’re been loads of cancellations recently how have you been finding that, frustrating?
LC: Yes very frustrating, it’s been a complete nightmare try to plan anything at the moment and you need to take the chance when you can get a run the horses have missed a lot and are way behind where they should be. But everyone’s in the same boat.

HM: Do you get a lot of young people looking up to you asking how you got to where you are so quickly?
LC: Yeah there are a few people that sending me emails and letters and i tell them its just hard work and dedication really. Things haven’t always gone to plan, I’ve been very lucky to have the experiences I’ve had but I’ve also had things go wrong but you just have to pick yourself up and carry on and try harder. Long days and no days off but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

HM: Who do you think is the best competition today?
LC: I think Mark Kyle is a real specialist at this type of event, he's won it a lot. I think Andrew Nicholson will give it a good go, he’s a fast cross country rider, and good at showjumping as well. His horse Quimbo has always been fast and is very careful so I think he’ll do quite well. There are quite a few in there and everyone’s got their chance.

HM: Have you been to Hickstead before?
LC: Yes I used to do showing so have been here before years ago for the show ponies, but apart from that not really.

HM: Are you tempted to go back?
LC: No, it’s all about eventing (laughs).

HM: Great thank you for talking to us, good luck in the competition and for the rest of your career.
LC: Thank you very much.

Check out Laura in action below at the 2012 CHIO Aachen held in Germany in early July 2012.