Holly now daring to dream about Rio

“I went from being a young rider competing against young riders to competing with the world’s best within like a few months.”

Victory in the CCI three-star Under-25s event at Bramham – two weeks after the death of her grandad – provided the platform for a full international debut at the European Championships.

The rider led the likes of World No 1 Michael Jung after day one of dressage.

Now, if Holly has her way, the two will meet again in five months’ time at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

With just four combinations set to represent Team GB in South America, Woodhead knows there would be more obvious contenders to board the plane to this summer’s Games.

Twenty-six Britons sit higher in the FEI World rankings than the World No 169 with William Fox-Pitt and Kitty King plus Yorkshire duo Nicola Wilson and Oliver Townend all inside the world’s top 14.

But there is no disguising the acceleration of Woodhead’s progress or both the ability and untapped potential with her star ride DHI Lupison.

Victory at Bramham last summer qualified the duo for Rio and the pair’s international credentials were there for all to see when the partnership finished 21st on GB debut at September’s European Championships at Blair Castle.

Furthermore, Grimsby-born Woodhead is convinced both her cross-country round and even exemplary dressage test could have been better still.

It means that even facing competition with the likes of Fox-Pitt, King, Wilson and Townend, as far as Rio 2016 goes, she has every reason to dare to dream.

“I think the whole experience of last year was the highlight,” Woodhead tells The Yorkshire Post from her base in Wiltshire.

“When I look back, I only did my first intermediate probably three years ago and I haven’t had that much experience on different horses, it’s always kind of been him.

“To be on my first event team with him, I did juniors on him and young riders and now seniors, I think that’s the highlight overall, that we’ve been a partnership throughout.

“I was second after dressage and the test could have been even better.

“It’s quite funny because I just came up after the dressage and was told ‘what were you playing at? Your halts weren’t this way, you could have done this and that, you could have easily been in the lead.’ Is second not good enough?!

“But that was brilliant and I actually made a silly mistake on cross-country. I should have gone on my instinct and I think I got drawn into the whole ‘what is everyone else doing?’ scene because they are all senior riders and they have done much more than I have.

“I didn’t go with my natural instinct, I probably just over-planned what I was trying to do. A stupid mistake, but he is more than capable of it because he flew around the rest. Not a problem.

“With Bramham, it still hasn’t sunk in. I was thinking ‘this is just another event really’ but it was definitely my favourite and the highlight of my life so far.”

Sizing up what 2016 could possibly offer, Holly pondered: “I don’t like thinking about it but I would definitely say the Games would be my ultimate, ultimate aim.”

Even the magnitude of that statement brings the rider to break into a quiet little laugh.

The sheer pace of development is still sinking in.

“There’s so much that can happen,” continued Holly, who is dating another rising eventing star in Wiltshire rider Tom McEwen.

“Last year, my aim was to get to Bramham and that happened so I would like to think we could possibly do something along those lines and maybe a four star at the end of the year it that wasn’t to happen.

“Four go to the Olympics and there’s everyone... Fox-Pitt is back now and there’s some really good combinations.

“But my horses’s dressage is good and, hopefully, that will continue and his show-jumping is really good.

“I’ve just got to ride him around a few tracks and now that I’ve ridden him around Blair, I’d have changed so much and I realise.

“Hopefully, this year I will be a bit quicker and on the ball and make my own decisions.”

An early decision for 2016 was enforced as far as Woodhead was concerned with the rider’s plans to feature in the year’s first Olympic trial in Fontainebleau shelved by having an operation to remove her appendix.

DHI Lupison will, instead, take in early April’s CIC three-star at Burnham Market before heading to Chatsworth and then Bramham.

One year on from bringing the Bramham house down in the CCI Under-25s event, the gelding will be aimed at the CIC three-star won by Nicola Wilson and Annie Clover last year.

For both Wilson and Woodhead, Bramham 2016 will offer one last chance to impress the Olympic selectors with the GB team set to be announced in June.

Badminton was another early season option but Holly admitted: “He is qualified but I am not experienced enough.

“He would jump around, not a problem, but we are going to Burnham Market in Norfolk for a CIC three-star and then Chatsworth again like we did last year in preparation for Bramham again in the CIC, not the CCI.

“They will make their mind up who makes the Olympic team after Bramham so from then on we will decide where we are going to go and what we are going to do. Burghley could be an option, something along those lines.

“Of course, if I get to Rio it’s a bonus, definitely.

“If you had told me at the end of last year I had a chance of going to Rio I wouldn’t have believed you.

“But anything is possible and if he’s on song and does Bramham well then there is a chance there.

“I don’t and won’t be putting any pressure on myself. You can only do your best can’t you?”

That best proved more than good enough in 2015 and, Rio or otherwise, another step forward is envisaged in 2016.

Woodhead now has 14 horses to compete, compared to the six of last year.

It means days off are a rarity, and that even includes Christmas Day, albeit with a slight and well deserved twist.

“Over the winter, I haven’t stopped and I even rode on Christmas Day,” revealed Holly. “But I did have a Prosecco before I got on.”