Laura Collett will head to Badminton Horse Trials in a few weeks’ time with the cheers from last year’s stunning success still ringing in her ears.

The 33-year-old, who lives in Salperton, produced one of the great performances on London 52, leading from start to finish and setting an all-time Badminton record finishing score of 21.4.

Collett and London 52 will again be the ones to beat this time around – Badminton runs from Thursday 4^th May to Monday 8th May this year – although they will have to go some to beat last year’s remarkable achievement.

“That finishing score was pretty cool,” said Collett with some understatement. “To have the best ever score at Badminton is great on a personal level.”

And Badminton is most certainly the major prize according to the former Chipping Campden School pupil, even though she is also an Olympic gold medallist.

“Badminton tops everything,” she said, “Growing up, it was always the absolute pinnacle of the sport. It’s the toughest competition, the hardest cross-country.

“For an eventer, Badminton is top, it’s so difficult to win. Nothing will ever top Badminton.”

And while that Badminton win is clearly number one in Collett’s eyes, she has achieved plenty else in the sport too.

Awarded an MBE for services to equestrianism in 2022, her big breakthrough year came two years earlier with her first five-star win in Pau.

That was something she described as “the start of a pretty epic two years” because the following year she was off to Japan to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.

Those Games had been delayed for a year because of Covid and Collett said: “Going to the Olympics was something I’d always dreamed about but I never thought would happen.”

The worldwide pandemic meant there weren’t any crowds to see Collett pick up a team gold for Great Britain alongside Oliver Townend and Tom McEwen, but that didn’t spoil her enjoyment one bit.

“I was so grateful the Games went ahead, they were even better than I imagined,” she said.

She did admit it was strange not having any crowds to cheer them on and said it was tough not having her mum there for what was, at the time, her finest achievement in the sport.

Mum is Tracey Collett, who lives in Moreton-in-Marsh and someone who her daughter describes as her “biggest supporter”.

It was Collett’s mum who first put her on a pony at the age of two, sparking a connection that is now a lifelong passion.

“Ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted to do something with horses,” said Collett.

“I’ve been very lucky, I had lots of good ponies when I was young. I started eventing when I was 13, that’s when I got bitten by the eventing bug.”

That was 20 years ago. Laura Collett has come a long way since then, although she has known some very tough times too because she suffered a near fatal fall in 2013.

It took hard work, determination and sheer talent to come back from that, of course, but all the effort has most certainly been worthwhile.

She’s got a mighty impressive CV and she’d love nothing more than to add a second Badminton title to that CV at the beginning of May.