Olympics blog

''This is not a dressage competition.''

Those words, said to me on Monday by Team GB's William Fox-Pitt were ringing in my ears all morning as I reported from the cross country phase of the Olympic eventing competition.

Not only did Fox-Pitt greatly improve his own individual standing after a superb round, but many others who'd struggled in the dressage also found themselves rising up the order as several big names came to grief.

The course proved an excellent test of horsemanship and with so many fences on such a short course, it was a really entertaining watch.

During one of our broadcasts Mark Pougatch asked over the Radio 5 airwaves ''what's cross country all about then?''

Unfortunately I wasn't available to answer him. But if I had been I would have said that it's what the sport of eventing is all about.

It's simply the best bit for me. No event rider goes eventing for the dressage or show-jumping. They all love the thrill of galloping and jumping across country.

It does mean it can be a bit of a muddy sport though and this was no different. The weather was pretty grim all day. It rained heavily and that was not good news for us as there was no roof to our commentary position.

One of the Swedish radio journalist's kit got so wet it broke down. Luckily ours somehow kept working but I was mightily relieved I was doing radio and not my usual TV.

By the end I looked absolutely awful. My white jeans (yes I know that was stupid) were brown and white spotted. My feet were black with some fairly rotten smelling mud attached to them and I still hadn't got round to putting any make-up on!

So to Team GB's performance... well they all did a brilliant job didn't they? Now in third position in the team competition and still in with a serious shout at gold.

Which - apart from being fab news for any British fans reading this - also means the small wager I have with my fellow eventing commentator, John Murray, is looking a good bet. Roll on Tuesday's show-jumping...