"Good evening! Well, as much as I am the eternal optimist, and as much as I’m normally good at putting a positive spin on things, there is no way of ignoring the fact that the heavens have finally opened! Really quite considerate, in fact, from those in charge, who have sent the rain tonight so that tomorrow is a beautiful day (I can dream). Despite the slightly soggy past half an hour, we’ve had a great day here at Hickstead, on day two of jumping in the main ring at our new show.

Cow girls and engines 

Today, however, the excitement started long before the first horse cantered into the ring – well for one member of our team and an unsuspecting rider anyway. Minding her business this morning, pottling down the lane at some ungodly hour on the way to work, my sister Lizzie got flashed by another car coming the opposite way in the lane. Friendly chapster that she is, she assumed she must know the person and waved back happily. It wasn’t until she zoomed around the corner, that suddenly she realised why she’d been flashed – there, just relaxing in the road was a ginormous Jersey cow, enjoying an adventurous escapist walkabout from his field.

A country girl born and bred, Lizzie thought she’d just drive slowly behind it to the corner and sort of guide it back into its field. Not content with following behind Lizzie slowly, clearly assuming she was just some idiotic female driver, the man behind overtook, nearly crashed into poor Mr Cow and sent him galloping straight past the gate and heading at speed towards the motorway! Cows and very fast moving cars are not a good combination so Lizzie called stablefield security immediately and told them to get out on to the road and stop the speeding cow. But speeding cow was indeed super speedy and the security boys shot out of the gate to see him flash past so now there was Lizzie, a few security boys and a rather red-faced man all behind Mr Cow – who was still charging towards the motorway.

Luckily, the rescue came in a lovely Darren Wise-shaped package. Show jumper Darren performed some James Bond style manoeuvring in his horsebox instead of turning in to the showground, thereby blocking the gate and penning Mr Cow in. To cut a long story short, after much more hilarity and cow chasing around our exit field into where Mr Cow was eventually herded, the day was saved and he was returned to his field. Rather too much excitement at that time on a show morning though.

Bargain pony 

Back to the showground… it didn’t take long for the excitement to start building with a bevy of height and amateur classes up for contesting in the main ring, with a stunning double win from Monica Ballard in both the 1.00m Open and 1.10m Amateur Championship. The vibe of the show really has been so nice, and it’s been great to have some time to watch some young horses strut their stuff, and of course to be reminded quite how high the callibre of amateur competition is in this country. My favourite story of the day though has to be the brilliant success story of Laura Preston, who qualified for the first time today to jump on the hallowed turf of the International Arena – on Truly Darco, a horse that she had bought for just £50! Just goes to show anything is possible. Brilliant.

And then, just when I thought the day could hold no more excitement I find out that one of our sponsors Harry Blake of Equiform Nutrition, is on Big Brother! I think it will take my nieces a month to get over the thrill of knowing someone in that (awful) house, and while I have to admit to not really having ever watched it, I’m keeping everything crossed. I think Harry probably has his work cut out for him being a well spoken, milkshake business owning entrepreneur with a passion for hunting! Watch this space. Good luck Harry.

I’ll be back tomorrow, and will of course by then know who clinched a victory in the first ever All England Grand Prix, so stay posted."

Daisy