The sat nav was rendered useless, so frequent and helpful were the yellow signs, and the traffic queue was happily about two Land Rovers long (my Vauxhall Corsa stuck out like a sore thumb, but at least I could rest easy in the knowledge that there were plenty of cars to tow me out of a ditch if I accidentally drove into one - not much of a stretch with the state of my countryside driving, being a town girl at heart). When we entered the grounds of Burghley House, we had a momentary blip where my mother had forgotten to put the member's car pass on our rearview mirror and we almost had to pay another £11 to park for the day, but thankfully she remembered at the last minute and the steward let us through about three lanes of traffic to get to the right spot.
The first car park was near the warm-up cross country fences, and although the first time we walked it, it felt like a million miles from anything at all, happily we soon buried our melodrama and realised that three minutes from the World of the Horse pavilion was nothing in the grand scheme of things. We took in some of the Pony Club jumping in Ring 2 before hitting the trade stands, and it must've taken us at least three or four circuits to feel like we'd looked at everything once.
Our first purchase was some Dublin country boots (pictured, left) from the Townfields Saddler stand, and at £97 I was more than happy with these. I wore my Joules wellibobs for the entire first day as it rained (and rained...and rained...) and didn't want to ruin my new boots, but for the next three days they were glued permanently to my feet, and continue to be so even now we're back home. This is no reflection on my wellibobs, however, which are some of the comfiest waterproof shoes I've ever had the good fortune of wearing - it was just that with blazing sunshine for the rest of the time there, they weren't particularly necessary!New boots in hand, we had a quick glances in the Joules stall, and I found myself a bargain sleeveless polo shirt for £15, and then bought my mum and myself some of their incredible fluffy socks, which are well worth the price at just under £8 - I've got about ten pairs of these, and even though I've had some of them for years, they are invaluable in both summer and winter, when riding or just even in bed! Thinking we'd done well to limit ourselves to just these (plus the top my mum decided she couldn't live without), we decided to settle in and take in a bit of dressage from the North Stand.
We watched a few combinations go, including Ruth Edge and Rogersdale, and it was at this point that I realised my equine knowledge would be tested, as my mother, who has been riding all of once in her life, kept asking the most obscure questions I have ever heard. The funniest moment did occur when she commented that 'all of the horses keep doing a little hop in the middle when they're cantering', before I realised she'd thought that flying change was a spook. I hastily put her right, and then had to try and explain exactly what a canter lead and a half walk pirouette were - no mean feat when you've got one eye on the dressage as it is.Realising that as interesting as I find the dressage (and although the stands look deserted in my photo above, I promise that the other end of the North Stand was packed, as were the standing sections to the right), my mum would probably not be quite as fascinated, so after about forty five minutes of this, we headed off for something to eat. My advice at this point is to refuse to eat from the food vans there - two jacket potatoes with toppings and two drinks cost us £16, and at that price, I'd expect the container to at least be gold-plated! We hadn't come prepared that first day and so gritted our teeth as we were both starving, but from then on we dusted off our trusty Next picnic backpack (only sold in the summer months, usually priced at about £35 but worth every penny), nipped to the nearest Tesco to our hotel (the Tesco Extra in the Serpentine Green shopping centre, where there's also a petrol station that isn't at the extortionate motorway prices!) and bought food from there instead.
Once we'd eaten our (sadly not gold-plated) jacket potatoes, we decided to do a bit more shopping, where we bought my dad an enormous iron planter (top tip: ask the people on the stall if you can pick it up later, because carting one of them around through the crowds is not much fun! Luckily the woman on this stall let us, but dragging it back to the car was hard enough). We went back into Joules where I picked up a hoody I'd been eyeing up earlier that morning, a little eye-watering at £49.95 but I still have a Joules polo shirt that I bought 8 years ago that continues to wash brilliantly and doesn't look remotely aged, so almost a decade's worth of wearing is enough to convince me that the prices are worth it! However, after this particular trip in, we realised Mary King, my equestrian idol, was doing a signing, and so we stopped around for that. The queue was a little unruly, but only took us about half an hour to get to the front, and then for the first time in my life words failed me. I could've told her that she is my absolute inspiration with her positive attitude and riding, but all I could manage was '...can I touch your medal?', which she very kindly let me do. So despite sounding like half my brain had fallen out, I can vouch for her being possibly the nicest person in the public eye that I have ever met - plus she signed a copy of her book for me, which I will treasure forever to keep my inner twelve year old happy!After a little more shopping (just for a change!) in the Joules Burghley collection stand, my mum discovering some manuka honey products, finding some bargain jodhpurs back in the Townfields stand and taking in a bit more dressage, we opted to head back to check into the hotel at about half past four, at which point there was no traffic on the way out, and getting lost was entirely the fault of my sat nav and my mum who later admitted that she'd had the road map upside down...
Top Tips:
- Take your food with you! If you don't earn £75,000 a year and balk at paying almost £20 for two of you to eat at every meal time, find your nearest Tesco (I used my iPhone and despite the slightly erratic signal, found the nearest one on the store location section of their mobile website), get a picnic bag of some kind (Next do some great ones in the summer, as do Joules) and go from there. The nearest Tesco we found to Burghley was about a fifteen minute drive and although it was a bit of a pain going back there every day, it was well worth it.
- Don't listen to your sat nav! Follow the other cars until you hit a main road and then let it replan its route to its heart's content! The road signs were well-placed and frequent, and pointed you in a general direction, at which point you could let your sat nav take over.
- Bring some wellies! Whilst the weather cheered up by Friday, my wellibobs were a necessity on the first day thanks to the thick mud and intermittent rain. And layers are your friend!
Purchases:
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| Dublin country boots, £97 from Townfields |
1 pair of navy/check Harry Hall jodphurs, £19.95 in sale
1 teal sleeveless polo shirt from Joules, £14.99 in sale
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| x2 pairs of fluffy socks, £7.95 each from Joules |
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| Stripe sweatshirt, £49.95 from Joules |
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