A good show day is rarely won on the day itself. It is built in the weeks beforehand, in your own yard, in the dark evenings and the quiet Sunday mornings when nobody is watching. The horses who cope best with the buzzy atmosphere of a competition ground are usually the ones whose owners have already practised the tricky bits at home — loading, plaiting, standing still, and working in company. If you can take the novelty out of the day, you take most of the stress out of it too.

Work backwards from the date

Once your entry is in, sit down with a calendar and count back. Two weeks out is the time to check the practicalities: your horse's passport must travel with him, and his influenza vaccinations need to be up to date and correctly recorded for most affiliated competition. Check the schedule for your class times, the lorry park arrangements and whether you need to declare on arrival.

Then plan your preparation in layers:

• Two weeks out: book the farrier if shoes are due, and check your travel boots and rug still fit properly.
• One week out: wash tails, pull or trim manes, and check your tack over for worn stitching.
• A few days out: clean your tack properly rather than the night before, and try your show clothes on. You will find the missing glove now, not at 5am.

Make loading a non-event

Loading is the single biggest source of show-day stress, and it is almost always a practice problem rather than a horse problem. A horse who only sees the trailer on competition day learns that the trailer means something exciting and frightening happens next.

Instead, load him in the middle of a normal week with nothing at the end of it. Walk him on, give him a haynet, let him stand quietly for five minutes, then unload and turn him out. Repeat it three or four times over a fortnight, and vary it — sometimes loading from the left, sometimes with a friend walking past, sometimes with the ramp down and the engine running. If he is hesitant, ask for one good step forwards and reward it rather than dragging him on. Patience at home buys you calmness at the venue.

Practise plaiting and turnout in advance

Plaiting is a skill that lives in your fingers, and it fades. Do a full set of plaits at least twice before the show — once midweek and once a few days before — so that your hands remember what to do and your horse remembers standing still for forty minutes.

A couple of details that make a real difference:

• Don't wash the mane on the morning of plaiting. A slightly day-old mane is grippier and plaits far more securely than a freshly washed one. Damp it down with a sponge instead.
• Practise the difficult bits. If your horse fidgets when you touch his ears, spend a week doing short, calm sessions with a damp sponge around the poll.
• Time yourself. If your plaits take an hour at home, allow ninety minutes on show day, because everything takes longer when you are nervous.

Turnout practice also means getting your horse used to being brushed, oiled and fussed over in an unfamiliar place. Take him to a friend's yard for an hour and run through the routine there. The smell of a different yard is a surprisingly good rehearsal for a show ground.

Rehearse your warm-up and your test

Many horses fall apart in the warm-up because the warm-up is the first time they have been asked to work in a crowded, noisy environment. Recreate a little of that at home. Ask a friend to ride in the school at the same time, play a radio, put a few poles and banners around the edge, and see how he copes.

Then build a warm-up routine you can repeat anywhere — something like ten minutes of walk and trot on a long rein, five minutes of suppling circles and transitions, then a short burst of canter before you go in. Keep it the same every time you school at home, so that on the day it feels like something familiar rather than something to survive. If you are jumping, walk the course in your head, plan your lines and stick to the plan you rode in practice.

Pack like you mean it

Write a list and keep it in the lorry. It should include haynets for the journey and the day, two full water containers from home (some horses refuse strange water), a bucket, feed, grooming kit, plaiting bands or thread and needle, hoof oil, stud kit if you use one, a cooler or rug for afterwards, spare gloves and a first aid kit for both of you. Add a spare headcollar and lead rope — the one you cannot find is always the one you need.

Keep the last twenty-four hours boring

Do not change your horse's feed or routine the night before. Feed at his normal time, turn him out if that is what he usually does, and keep the evening quiet. Clean the lorry, load the kit, and go to bed early.

On the morning, allow far more time than you think you need. Arrive with an hour to spare so you can walk the ring, let him look around, and settle into your normal routine without rushing. If something does go wrong — a lost shoe, a refusal to load, a spooky warm-up — remember that your horse is reading you. Breathe, lower your hands, and give him a moment. The riders who have the best days are rarely the ones with the most talented horses; they are the ones who prepared quietly, at home, when it did not matter.