Is she the longest travelling weekend rider in the world?

Over the last 18 months, she has travelled over 250000 miles to ride her horse, Charles Chequers Blue.

Every weekend for the last 18 months Denise Dent has made an unbelievable 12-hour round trip of over 3,500 miles to ride her horse, Charles Chequers Blue, at the Hurstwood Farm Equestrian Centre at High Hurstwood in East Sussex. Every Friday evening, Denise, who is finance director of Makro Cash and Carry Portugal, part of the METRO Group, the third largest retailer in the world – They have sales of over £60 billion a year – catches the 19.50 Easyjet flight from Lisbon to London. At midnight, she arrives home at Wadhurst, Kent.

The following morning at 11.00 am sharp, she is at Hurstwood Farm where Charlie, as he is better known, a 16 hh Warmblood TBX, is waiting for her. She is there usually until 18.00 hrs. The same on Sundays.

At weekends they work on either improving their dressage or competing at local competitions usually at Sandhurst, sometimes at Felbridge

She does all her own mucking out and tacking up. She even insists on sweeping the yard.

At 4:30am on Monday morning Denise is back at Heathrow for the flight back to Lisbon.

Is it worth it?

"Of course," she says, "Otherwise I wouldn’t do it."

But surely there are horses and livery yards in Portugal?

"Of course," she says. "But they’re not the same as in England. Where I am based in Lisbon the horses spend most of their time indoors. They don’t spend as much time outdoors as they do in this country. Partly, it’s the climate, no grassy paddocks. Partly, it’s their style of riding. They school their horses. They go to shows. They go to competitions. Then they come straight back and put the horses in the stables where they stay until the next time they’re taken out. Here, it’s much more open-air. Which, I think, is better for the horses and the riders. It’s also much more varied. Just hacking out, for example. They never just hack out in Portugal"

"However there is one great horsey benefit to working in Portugal, I get to ride Lusitano schoolmasters during the week with one of the best classical dressage riders in Portugal!"

Can anyone beat Denise’s record?  Tell us about it.