Access All Areas Laura Collett

Whether schooling racehorses, winning Olympic gold or going about her daily routine, there's never a dull moment on Laura Collett's yard. Martha Terry goes behind the scenes as the Badminton winner gears up to defend her title

- Martha Terry

IT’S 6.30am on a dank grey morning and Laura Collett is already aboard her first horse of the day. There will be 14 more. This one, a smart bay three-year old, is one of a trio of William Haggas’s Flat horses Laura has in for schooling at Penhill Farm near Cheltenham. Already a winner, he has recently been gelded and is learning how to behave. He’s trotting smartly in circles, on a contact, looking more like a young event horse than a potential star of the Turf.

A thick drizzle has set in, but Laura is on a roll. The bay goes on the walker, and Laura hops aboard another Flat racer, a dark bay with a stripe.

“I like riding the Flat horses, they’re easy to mould as they’re so young – they haven’t had years of going the wrong way,” Laura says.

This one is less amenable. Few birds are hardy enough to brave this wintry dawn, but their sporadic chirrups set off the three-year-old. Any little noise propels him into orbit, but Laura waits for the antics to stop and resumes trot. Once he’s settled, she swaps onto an elegant filly here for rehabbing and heads out for a hack round the hills on the Salperton Park estate, where the yard is based. Next up is Creggan Quality, a novice eventer who needs a jump before a prospective buyer comes to look at him the next day.

This is the reality of life as a five-star event rider. Laura, 33, may look to have the world at her feet with an Olympic gold medal and Badminton trophy in her cabinet, but it’s the daily grind that got her to this point, and she’s not stopping now.

“People ask how my life has changed since winning Badminton, and I find it hard to answer because it hasn’t changed at all,” she says. “I’m still here riding horses all day, just as I was before.”