WITHIN 24 hours of competing at Badminton this weekend, Clare Chamberlayne will be back in London working at a hostel for the homeless. Unusually among the 81 contestants who are attempting eventing’s unique challenge, Chamberlayne has a full-time job.

It is not an easy mix. A fortnight ago, she left Clapham, South London, for her parents’ home near Newbury, Berkshire, at 11pm, competed the next morning at Tweseldown, in Hampshire, and was back at the hostel, Western Lodge, by 2pm. “I hadn’t intended to start a full-time job the year I was attempting Badminton,” she said, “but I fell into it and then found it isn’t the sort of job you can walk away from.”

Chamberlayne, 23, graduated in psychology from London University two years ago and spent the next 12 months working with the elderly in Hungerford. Needing to expand her practical work — she hopes to become a clinical psychologist — she answered an advertisement for voluntary help at Western Lodge, a hostel managed by the Society for the Relief of the Homeless Poor. “One of their full-time staff then left and I was asked if I would fill her job,” she said.

Work involves anything from counselling to advice on personal health and hygiene. “They come in as rough sleepers either through selfreferrals or an agency and can stay up to two years,” she said.

It is a world away from the one that Chamberlayne re-enters this week. Competing at Badminton has been an ambition since she was first taken there at the age of 8 (“I kept walking under the fences,” she recalled). Three years later, riding the 15.3-hands Mr Monty for the Old Berks Pony Club, she showed a precocious talent when she finished fifth individually at the Pony Club Championships at Weston Park, Shropshire. The next year, they were third.

But it was the arrival of Headley Kingdom in her parents’ Berkshire yard that propelled her into the higher echelons. Bought seven years ago as a five-year-old from his breeder, Michael Hounsell, the big, flashy chestnut is the ideal type of event horse. Andrew Nicholson was one of several leading riders who coveted him. “He kept shouting ‘grow, grow’ to the horse every time he passed us in the hope that he would become too strong for me,” Chamberlayne, a petite 5ft 4in, said.

He did grow — to 16.2 hands — and he has on occasion proved too strong. At the Young Riders European Championships at Hartpury, Gloucestershire, in 2000, Chamberlayne found herself going too fast into a bounce fence. “He bounced through and I bounced straight off,” she said. They redeemed themselves at Boekelo in the Netherlands later that year, when they finished fourteenth, which earned them selection for the 2001 European Young Riders Championships at Waragem, Belgium, the next year. Waragem, where Great Britain won the gold medal, remains a milestone. “It was very special to be in the team and then to win the gold,” Chamberlayne said.

Last year, in contrast, is one she would rather forget. Competing in her first event of the season on a novice horse, they fell at the open ditch when the horse straddled the fence and then flipped over. Chamberlayne, who ruptured ligaments in her left knee, refers to it as a “standard mistake by a green horse”. Instead of making her Badminton debut, she was a spectator again, only this time on crutches. After an operation on her knee, she was back on Kingdom for Burghley in September — prematurely, as it proved. They fell at the Irish Bank when Chamberlayne had “brake” problems.

Despite the chequered build-up, Chamberlayne relishes the challenge that lies ahead of her on Saturday. “I must get through the Lake because that’s the fence everyone associates with Badminton, but there’s a whole shopping list of fences I want to be able to tick off,” she said.

A stronger bit for Kingdom and her own “new” knee have boosted her confidence. “I know my horse has got the potential to be in the top 25, but I’ve got to make sure I play my part,” she added.

Her trainer, Lucinda Fredericks, also competing this week, rates the horse higher. “In my opinion, he’s probably the best on the circuit at the moment,” Fredericks said. “He’s phenomenal in all three phases.” Fredericks rode Kingdom at his first two events of the season at Chamberlayne’s request. “She’s six inches taller than me and can settle him more easily,” Chamberlayne said.

She has taken the week off and will walk the course with Fredericks — several times. Her job means that she relies “hugely” on her support network and much work goes in while she is in London. Her father, Mark, was a leading point-to-point rider and her mother, Angela, helped by the groom, Katy Radford, is “brilliant” at stable management.

Chamberlayne also has support from Clapham, where some of her advice was played back to her before she left for Badminton. Wished good luck by the residents, she said: “I don’t expect to win.” Back came the reply: “Nonsense, that’s negative thinking.”