Tag: Piggy French

Easing in gently

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March got off to an unusual start for me – for the first time since 2003 I didn’t go to Isleham Horse Trials on the opening weekend of the season. No Oasby, no Great Witchingham. In fact I didn’t go to my first event until 31st… I rather like this new regime.

So what have I been doing? Primarily writing press releases and copy for magazines, plus the redesign for Piggy French‘s website went live. I’m somewhat mystified as to how the month passed so quickly when, on paper at least, it doesn’t look like I was that busy. It ended at full speed, however, with Belton International Horse Trials. It was my first year there as press officer, and back where I lived before moving to Norfolk.

It’s a great event, with so much going on aside from the eventing. Fortunately the sun shone (most of the time) and we had record crowds. The media all behaved themselves, I caught up with my web guru, Neil, and clients Piggy, Oliver and Ros all did well. I also took the opportunity to stay one night with my ex-neighbours and one with a friend who worked with me when I ran Eventing Worldwide. Two very entertaining evenings, although it was surreal to look out of my bedroom window on Friday night and see the house that I lived in for 10 years across ‘my’ paddock!

A major highlight in March was the opportunity to have a play in a 1938 Hornet Moth. It was a huge privilege to take to the skies in this beauty, such a contrast to the RV7 that I usually fly. Charlotte, one of my oldest friends – we were in the Pony Club together, shared houses at college etc – came to stay, and whilst I couldn’t entice her into the air (she works for a safari company and has, I think, had her fair share of alarming moments in small planes) we did do a lot of beach walking and even more talking.

So, time to switch focus to Burnham Market International and Badminton – blogs to sort, copy to write, and I am determined to keep on top of the garden this year. One thing I didn’t know until today was that if you catch a mouse that has been ‘released’ in the house by a devilish cat, you have to swing it round by its tail as you return it to the outside world. Otherwise it will climb back up its tail and bite you. And no, of course I didn’t do the swinging – my thanks to Gavin Howling, not very ably assisted by James and Zoe 😉

Mud & Mayhem

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piggytommaxHow could I have thought that having builders in the autumn was a good idea – it looks like a battleground in front of the house. Hopefully things will crack on more speedily soon – we had the time consuming problem of discovering a well when the builders were digging the footings for the new walls, necessitating both extra Building Regs visits and the handing over of more money 🙁 The new room is starting to take shape though, and the re-located office has fresh paint on the walls and no longer sports a shocking artex ceiling!

Work is blissfully containable – Little Downham was my last report of the year for Horse & Hound and it was good to catch up with Piggy French, Tom and baby Max there. I’m sure Piggy will be a force to be reckoned with again when she returns to competing next year. Oliver Townend has finished the season a remarkable 1000+ points ahead in the British Eventing Rankings, while also nipping out to Australia and winning a CIC3* on a horse he had only sat on three times before the competition started – I’m not convinced he’s human.

Closer to home we found out that Sam is leaving Musketeer, her husband having taken a job in Australia – exciting for her but gutting for us. She’s going to leave very big shoes to fill.

This is the time of year where I tend to hunker down, catch up on the things that fell off my To Do list, royalalberthalland make plans for next year – I’m still seeking that elusive light bulb moment as to how to revolutionise the lives of all my clients, but I’m sure it will come.

Growler braved the builders and came to stay for a few days of beach walks, chat and good food, and I have even ventured down to London which is a rare event for me these days. I was thoroughly spoilt with one friend taking me to tea at The Wallace Collection and another to see Michael Morpurgo and Joanna Lumley read the story of War Horse at the Royal Albert Hall.

How things change on the turn of a card though. Louise, who I went to the RAH with, parted company with her horse out hacking two days later and now has a broken back. Fortunately she will recover, but what a reminder that we don’t know what’s around the corner. I’ve been holding extra tight when riding a newly-clipped George recently; strong winds and a plentitude of pheasants in the hedges is proving exciting.

The White Rabbit Queen

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MalagaWhere did January go? I don’t seem to have drawn breath and tomorrow it will be February. Christmas was to be got through rather than celebrated – I can be massively anti-social at times and this was one of them, though it was good to spend the time in Norfolk for the first time.

The highlight of the festive season was winning a totally random ‘white rabbits’ competition with a very old boyfriend… it happens once a month and has been going on, with the odd gap, for over 25 years. New Year’s Eve was the ‘big’ one and to his intense annoyance I pipped him at the post – girl power 🙂

Things then perked up even more with a trip to Malaga, chaperoning my flying godson. It was so good to see blue sky and feast on some delicious tapas after the filthy weather we’d had here. Tom got some flying in and I eventually cracked the basics of navigating the town – with no help from an intermittent sat nav in the hire car (on day one I had to resort to paying a taxi driver Eu5 so that I could follow him back to the hotel!)

On my return it was finally D-Day – or more accurately G-Day. Whilst I was due to start riding George in December he had one last attempt at self-harm, shattering that dream. We are now back in action, albeit only walking for a few weeks. I have barely stopped smiling since – even when he does his unexploded time bomb impersonation.

Work has really kicked off; meetings with Musketeer about Burnham Market International, trips to web clients Piggy French and Oliver Townend, and a potential new press officer job meeting in the Midlands. Neil came up trumps when we had a short-notice e-commerce website to do – Luminosity, headed up by my GPC ‘boss’ Andrea, launched its Hi Viz business at BETA to great acclaim.

More new websites and web re-designs are in the pipeline for February and before I know it the eventing season will have started. It’s a good thing that kick boxing classes have started again – fitness levels need upping!