A Grand Day Out
Wednesday 1 September 2010
Allen & Page will once again be at Your Horse Live. Last year’s event went with a bang and one lucky visitor to the stand and her daughter won a fabulous day at the yard of equestrian stars Pippa and William Funnell. Marie Baines, her daughter Tabitha and friend Lydia describe their experience.
When we received the news about winning this amazing prize I remember it was a really horrible winter’s day– I was quite shocked to start with as I couldn’t remember going in for the competition. Then I remembered writing down the weight of the scoops of feed – there were about six of us in a group who were at Your Horse Live and we all entered the competition – I certainly didn’t expect to win!
When the day came round I felt quite apprehensive to be perfectly honest and we really didn’t know what to expect at all – I couldn’t believe that the Funnells would have the time or the inclination to spend time talking to such ordinary folk as me and my daughter! I thought we would just have an arm’s length look at their horses and perhaps shake hands with Pippa and William and then maybe be given a run down of a typical day by one of their grooms. Not being the most self-confident and assertive person I thought I would feel quite star-struck and say or do the wrong thing!
As it happened we were made to feel totally at home and at ease from the moment we arrived at Cobbetts Farm until the minute we left – absolutely everyone, from the grooms, Pippa’s secretary Jenny, Simone from Allen & Page and Pippa and William themselves included us in what was going on around us and we were made to feel like honoured guests. I still can’t believe how friendly and un-patronising Pippa and William were towards us, and my 16 year old daughter Tabitha and her friend Lydia were also thoroughly included. We are all three quite shy but we found ourselves asking questions and things were explained to us with genuine openness and desire for us to know how everything was run in the extraordinarily busy yard and ‘business’ that the Funnells run from their home.
We arrived having followed Jenny’s, Pippa’s secretary, excellent directions to yard and home that could have been anyone’s – I’m not sure whether I expected a big ‘Pippa and William Funnell Live Here’ sign with huge electric gates and security, but we arrived at a peaceful bungalow down a country lane with two stable yards, horse walker and horse boxes parked. Simone and Jenny welcomed us and Simone took us to her car to kit us out with Allen & Page T-shirts for the photos. The yard was quiet to start with but there were obviously some beautiful horses casually peering out of the boxes and a few grooms busying about. All at once a huge horsebox arrived and four grooms started to unload six or so beautiful horses. Simone explained that these were the four year olds bred from the Billy Stud and that Pippa and William would be grading them today and that we could watch.
Being fans of William and Pippa’s and knowing a bit about the Billy Stud and being great fans of eventing and showjumping in general, we were thrilled. Also we have all had our own horses from four year olds so have a keen interest in youngsters as well.
Pippa then rode onto the yard back from a hack on Rediscovered and I must admit to feeling a bit star struck at this point – more about the horse than about Pippa to be honest as I knew this was the horse that was gong to the World Equestrian Games! However, Pippa was really keen to meet us and welcome us to the yard and we had a pat of Rediscovered and as Pippa sat chatting he broke the end of her schooling whip in his teeth – which was actually quite funny as it seemed that even very famous and talented international eventers can do ‘normal’ naughty horse things.
We grabbed some camping chairs from one of the absolutely huge lorries parked in the yard and followed Pippa over to the field where some showjumps were set out with a dressage arena. The first set of four youngsters were warmed up in the sand school and then brought over ridden by the grooms. Simone, myself and the girls all sat by a jump in the middle of the course and William set about directing the grooms and teaching them as each stunning youngster was put through its paces.
We watched two batches of youngsters and then Simone took us to a beautiful country pub for a fabulous meal and a good chat about our own horses and her horses and horsey life in general – she was so easy to chat to and the whole experience was just pure good fun!
In the afternoon William showed us around his yard and we met the showjumpers that were there, including Mondriaan who we absolutely loved and was the horsey star of the day for us… a giant of a horse but really friendly.
We watched another batch of youngsters jump and William arranged for a groom to bring down Cevan, the grey stallion who was dad to some of the babies we had been watching, and this absolutely charismatic horse was jumped by one of the grooms with the youngsters – later Simone told us that William had purely brought Cevan down for us to see – wow!
For me, the best part of the day was sitting in the middle of a jumping field next to Pippa Funnell chatting about all those wonderful Billy babies – when I win the lottery one of those is top of my list! For Tabitha and Lydia it was also watching the lovely baby horses and spotting which ones they liked best, also being asked to help put the poles up and down on the jumps for William and listening to his teaching and also watching Pippa ride half passes across the school.
We were fans of William and Pippa before we went to the day but we are now total lifetime fans – they were both welcoming, friendly, attentive, modest, relaxed and totally and utterly inspiring. Horse people are horse people, whether they are grass roots amateurs like us or international and Olympic medallists – and on that day we really felt that we did have something in common with such superstars – our passion and love for our horses!
Thanks for giving me the chance to re-live a totally unique and wonderful experience.
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New ASM for NorfolkAllen & Page Horse Feeds is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Bee as Area Sales Manager for Norfolk. Date: 23 January 2012 Bryony hedges her bets!Bryony Biddlecombe, Area Sales Manager for the West Midlands, has been enjoying leaping hedges on her four-year-old horse Tilly. Date: 13 December 2011 |