Tag: Badminton

Bye bye Bertie

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I have survived my busiest month of the year – significantly less fit (not around for ‘boot camp’ sessions), probably half a stone heavier (diet of sandwiches) and with a complaining liver…. but it’s done for 2017.

First up was Badminton, and whilst I missed my usual partner in crime, Ellie, Steph did sterling work and the rest of the team were on great form. It feels like a lifetime ago now, but I do remember Nina chivvying us all out of the Media Centre on the Thursday evening just in time to catch the back end of the Cocktail Party. Badminton House is spectacular, and it is a huge privilege to have a good snoop around the paintings whilst sipping fine champagne and being fed scrumptious canapés.

The total highlight, however, was that Andrew Nicholson FINALLY won, on his 37th completion (must do the sums to see how often he started and didn’t complete). I don’t think there has ever been a more popular winner, or more tears shed by so many people, myself included. Epic.

I got home to find that Angel Horse had patently been partying too hard in the field, and was in dire need of a string of massages from the magic-fingered Sophie. He really is old enough to know better. With no riding I could at least keep on top of work, slip in a sneaky flight or two and spend a memorable, alcohol-fuelled evening with old friends from Lincolnshire days… did we really drink an entire bottle of port?

Before I could blink I was off to Rockingham International and 4 nights in the Best Western, Corby. Rockingham is such a great event, and this year was no different despite a couple of days of truly dire weather. The best hour was undoubtedly the one spent in the aforementioned Andrew Nicholson’s lorry while he was doing a radio interview – very entertaining, he is one happy man.

No rest for the wicked and it was on to Houghton International. The weather was glorious – bar half an hour of such heavy rain everything had to be stopped; horses and riders couldn’t even see the fences – and the Germans were on fire, winning the Nations Cup and taking a 1-2 in the 3*. Luckily client Piggy French flew the UK flag by winning both the 1* and the 2*.

There was, of course, more camel racing, organised by the East Anglian Air Ambulance, and this time I WAS a jockey. I haven’t laughed so much in months – and while I rather let Bertie down (didn’t kick hard enough!), it was brilliant fun; I can live with being beaten by Andreas Ostholt. I also love the fact that Bettina Hoy literally leapt off her winning horse, and on to a camel as the professional rider in the final. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me, am chuffed to say I raised £3,600.

So that was May. I’m now looking forward to a slower pace of life with just Blaston Show at the end of June. I say ‘just’ – it’s the Show’s 60th anniversary so I’d best pull my finger out.

February blues

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I’ve never been a fan of February. Back in the day, before clients and commitments, I would pack a small bag and head off travelling. The nights might be getting shorter but I find the glimpses of Spring almost tortuous – snow drops and aconites peek out from under my favourite curly hazel tree, but then Storm Doris comes along, rips tiles from the roof, and slays one of a row of lovely big old oaks in the field behind my house.

The highlight of the month is that I now have a lawn and terrace in front of the house – the quagmire is no more. Andy and his boys at Garden Works survived the elements and are just the best.

Aside from that there has been quite a lot of writing, some chauffeuring (Manners Media photographer Leigh parted company with a bronking horse and managed to snap his medial collateral ligament and damage the anterior cruciate – not ideal when his bees needed feeding due to the cold weather), and we got the contracts signed with Ecqlusive, which now sponsors both Ros Canter and Cholmondeley Castle Horse Trials.

Earlier this week I made the trip down to Badminton for the annual pre-event Media meeting. It’s a mighty long way to go for a meeting, but always worthwhile. With my partner in crime Ellie Crosbie a very new mother, Ellary (so much easier to function under one name when we do the same job… Nina and Claire are known as Clina… I forget why Sally has morphed into Jeff!) is awol this year – but I’m happy to reveal that for 2017 I will be half of Selary, having met up with this year’s media partner Stephanie.

Hugh Thomas treats us all to a great lunch in the Old Royal Ship in Luckington after the meeting, although my delicious lasagne had to be abandoned unfinished when the ‘very very nice man’ from the RAC arrived to tell me that the grinding noise coming from my car was totally knackered brakes. I gingerly followed his van to a local garage, MGS… good choice. Super-efficient, absolutely charming, and if you ever need mechanical help near Chippenham, that’s where you should head.

It was quite a month for catching up with my past which, whether alarming, surprising or entertaining, is almost always thought provoking. John Swire’s hugely moving memorial service in Canterbury Cathedral hosted people I rarely see, from my Far East travelling companion (who on one memorable occasion failed to successfully mime to our delightful Burmese hosts how long he’d like an egg boiled for – credit where it’s due… he ate it!) to my ex-husband. Along with the hyacinths which are just bursting forth, some real blasts from the past have popped up out of the woodwork and been helping to banish my February blues.

And breathe…

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HannahFrancis-HilsHappy days, I survived May – and looking back with the benefit of a few good nights sleep it was fantastic. I think Badminton was the best ever – we have a really great team in the media centre so it’s hard to really think of it as work, despite 12+ hour days, made all the better by the charming Mitsubishi Motors folk.

Witnessing the master class that was Michael Jung’s performance was a pure privilege, it really is Michael 1st, rest of the world nowhere at the moment. It was great to catch up with the lovely folk I stay with for the duration, but my lasting memory has to be meeting Hannah Francis and Wilberry Wonder Pony. For those that don’t know Hannah’s story, click here.

That someone so young (she had just turned 18 at Badminton) has achieved so much in the face of terrible adversity is truly humbling. It was an honour to be able to introduce her to the likes of Piggy French, Tina Cook, Izzy Taylor et al – not forgetting the top three…. Gemma Tattersall, Andreas Ostholt (who admitted that whilst he thought he had the ‘wonder pony’ he would concede to Hannah that Wilberry topped So Is Et) – and, of course, Mr Jung at the post-competition press conference. Hannah has made a bigger impact on hundreds of lives than the majority of people could do in five lifetimes.

There was a semi lull after Badminton as I scrabbled to catch up with everything I hadn’t had time for, and then the Best Western, Corby beckoned. I absolutely love Rockingham Horse Trials, another fantastic team, stunning setting, and the annual high jinx that comes from producing a steady stream of interviewees for John Griff’s BBC Radio Northants live Friday afternoon radio show.

BBC Radio Northants and Leicester (the lovely Ben Jackson) are stalwart supporters of the event, which makes my job so much easier. Both BBC and ITV cameras shipped up too – oh the joys of a central location!

It was a pretty seamless move from Rockingham to Houghton – another stunning setting and super fab group of people. The weather held, the competition was great, I had a dedicated media cabin for the first time (it’s the little things that keep me happy!) and, despite being in the communication abyss that is North Norfolk, the internet worked.

Admittedly, by Sunday afternoon I was beginning to dribble with exhaustion, but some of that was self inflicted – I blame Trevor Holt, Lorna Mason and Nina Lloyd Jones for leading me astray. On the Monday, once website updates were done, I did not budge from the horizontal position in front of the TV!

So that was it – over in a flash. Time for a better work/life balance for a few weeks, with Blaston Show my only real ‘outing’ for June. 🙂