Rising star Wayne Hutchinson has joined sportinglife.com as our new columnist for the National Hunt season. Read his thoughts on the campaign every Thursday.
I have to say I'm not the biggest fan of summer jumping, it tends to be very stop-start for jockeys in terms of the schedule, but I came out with a few winners on the board.
That's all you aim for but I must admit I'd prefer to have a six-week break between the end of one season and the start of another.
We'd all know were we are then and I'm sure most jockeys would like to have the gap between the two.
The new campaign is beginning to crank up a gear and it was fantastic to be back at Cheltenham on Saturday. I rode a couple of nice horses and it was great to be racing at one of the bigger tracks. It's what we all want.
I rode work for Alan King on Monday morning. We schooled two lots, totalling around 60 horses. It was a real mix of the youngsters and the older, established horses. Obviously we can't get on the grass at the moment because it's too quick but we have an all-weather surface and they were all having a pop there.
It's fantastic for me to be associated with a yard as big as Alan's. It's a big help to be riding good horses all the time, it can only improve you as a rider.
The good thing with the string at Barbury Castle is it's a real mix. You can be on high class hurdlers, raw recruits from the flat, later maturing store types, novice chasers, novice hurdlers. Basically the whole spectrum is covered.
It's all a great experience and I'm down at Alan's four times a week, two schooling mornings and two work mornings.
I also ride out for Richard Phillips and Tony Carroll while I pop down to Newmarket now and then to school for Jeff Pearce.
I have a verbal agreement with everyone and Alan obviously has first call on my services while Chris Broad is my agent and he does a good job in getting me some outside rides.
Through the winter you are very busy with Alan which is great and come the weekend Chris will find the spares when it's clear where I'll be riding.
Luckily Alan is very organised and I usually know by midweek where I'll be on the Saturday and for what horses.
My main target for the new season is to try and stay fit and ride winners - but it will be difficult to match 2008/2009.
To ride a Cheltenham Festival winner aboard Oh Crick was something else. You can't believe it has happened to you at the time.
I'd endured a frustrating start to the campaign having missed six months with my knee injury. I came back in October but I felt I was swimming against the tide to start with.
Six months is a long time to be off and you have to rebuild your relationships and restore people's confidence in you.
It felt like I was starting all over again.
That's why Oh Crick's win was so special. I began to get excited at the top of the hill and it was a case of just trying to keep my head together from then on in.
It was tight in the end but he is a horse who is always only going to do just enough and probably made it look closer than it actually was.
Looking ahead it seems as though I'll have a quiet week. I have the choice of two in the juvenile hurdle at Ludlow on Thursday and hope to pick up more rides there.
The entries for the weekend are through so I'll be looking at them and hoping there'll be rides at Chepstow or Aintree on Saturday then the three fixtures on Sunday.
It's quite a frustrating time at the moment, we are all waiting on the rain so the horses can get racing.
It will arrive though and when it does there is so much to look forward to.
Anyone wishing to post a question to Wayne or explore commercial opportunities with him, please email us and we will forward everything on to him.
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