Equestrian Nat Blundell is hoping to re-launch her international career when she competes in the Canberra International Horse Trials on Saturday.
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Blundell will ride locally born-and-bred Summer Rhythm in the four-star field and compete against several Olympians including Stuart Tinney, Amanda Ross and Shane Rose.
But she isn't worried about riding against some of Australia's best because it's what she has been thriving on for the last two decades.
Blundell has come incredibly close to Olympic selection before, having been on the shortlist and reserves team for multiple Games.
"I enjoy the competition and the pressure," Blundell said.
"I've been competing against them for 20 or so years now a lot of us are now friends.
"It's more of a challenge against the course rather than each other."
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Blundell conceded she's not in contention for the Tokyo Olympics while she focuses on improving Summer Rhythm in the four-star.
"Summer Rhythm is what we call quite a spooky horse," Blundell said.
"He'll probably be quite nervous for the dressage but I hope he's more relaxed because it's his home course."
Blundell said the 12-year-old gelding has shown a lot of promise in his short career despite being relatively young in the equestrian scene.
"He's new to the level so it's all about giving him experience and hopefully gaining confidence and learning from that for next year," Blundell said.
"Everything is harder, tougher and bigger but it's a local course for him and he's been competing on this course for many years now he's just doing it at that higher level."
Canberra's Equestrian Park in Curtin will host 250 riders and 340 horses from across the world, in a competition spanning four levels of difficulty.
The horses must perform three different disciplines; dressage, show jumping and the cross country.
They can't progress to the next phase after being eliminated from the previous one.
