As I sit in the showroom of the VW Van Centre surrounded by beautiful new vehicles, awaiting my middle-aged van to have its’ bits and pieces replaced, the hot sun is streaming through the glass panelling.
“No thank you, I don’t need a courtesy vehicle” I replied to the polite young man. This quiet few hours gives me time to reflect on last season and catch up with our Web Diary. As the summer becomes more hectic my comments about the shows we’ve attended tend to dwindle, so here’s a brief resume of the highs and lows of last year and our hopes for this year...
Cheltenham National Hunt Festival , March 11th-14th ,starts our outdoor tradestand season. For four days there is the most fantastic “buzz”. Our stand is in Champions Drive, which is situated right behind the Guinness Village, so the throb of Irish music belts out from mid morning until after the last! By Friday we know every song in the repetoires of the Irish bands! We’re not complaining! We love it all and seeing our regular faces who support us each year and catching up with all their news is great fun! Our congratulations must go to the game little Katchit, winner of this year's Champion Hurdle. The syndicate who own him have supported Sculpture to Wear very well. The ladies are all sporting our “Horse and Jockey” brooch enamelled with their Emerald green and pink colours!Also, well done to Paul Nicholls who has achieved a great feat in training 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Gold Cup. Denman made the race his own this time. A great big, old-fashioned type of chaser that lots of people thought would be outpaced by Kauto Star, but this super horse just kept galloping whilst Sam Thomas kept his cool. I'm sure there will be another day when these two great horses meet again! Is this going to be a repeat of the Arkle v Millhouse days? Take nothing away from the third horse,Neptune Collonges. He set good pace with Denman on his heels and ran boldly throughout. He is yet another grey owned by the Hales Family who are not only great supporters of National Hunt Racing but also have a string of top class showjumpers with Nick Skelton.
This year for the first time, we are exhibiting at the British Open Showjumping Championships , NEC, April 3rd-6th, I have no idea what to expect, but it's exciting to add a new venue to our fixture list.
Badminton Horse Trials follows in early May. 1st-4th May.. After last year’s problems I’m sure the Badminton committee will have been busy all year making sure the going is perfect for the cross country course and making some other modifications too. This is a wonderful horse trials, so hopefully there will be nothing to mar this year’s event.
Normally we have one night back at home in North Yorkshire and then straight down again to the Royal Windsor Horse Show. One of my “bug bears” about larger shows is their continual urge to change their layout, and Horsepower, who run Royal Windsor, are no exception. We no sooner get established on “our” site than we are asked to move! Even more stands have been added here and I just don't think there is enough business to be had for everyone. So for this reason I have decided not to attend the Royal Windsor Horse Show this year. However, I do love this show and will miss it.
Chatsworth Horse Trials runs on the 10th-11th May, during the same period as Royal Windsor. It's just “down the road “ in Derbyshire so Pat and I are looking forward to our weekend there where we will be exhibiting in the Rural Crafts Marquee. So come along and pay us a visit in this beautiful setting!
Bramham Horse Trials follows in June 5th-8th. This is a great outing for Yorkshire folk. The event includes Show Hunters on the Thursday morning, with Workers that afternoon.. The following day we see the young event horses and Saturday is cross-country day. Showjumping takes place on Saturday and Sunday. So lots going on and a very social week had by many! |
