The evening of Thursday 8th November saw Katie Taylor and Rosie Barber of Equesure set off to build up our lovely stand at Your Horse Live 2018. Little did we all know that our stand would play host to an incredible number of horse mad (like us!) visitors all looking for a great bargain and entertainment at the show.
The team brought our stand to life with wonderful pictures of their horses and ponies for the visitors to view as they filled out their competition entry forms and the twinkly fairy lights added a little festiveness to our stand.
Over the course of the three days, Equesure offered everyone the chance to win a First Aid and Treat hamper in our free prize draw by simply filling in a quick form. It was a couple of hours in on Friday 9th November that we realised… we needed a bigger competition box! The entries were flying in and we were amazed at the response our hampers were receiving.
Being our first year at Your Horse Live, we were impressed with the footfall on Friday, but after speaking with our new ‘neighbours’ at Super X Country we were soon enlightened with the knowledge that “we’d seen nothing yet” and that Saturday and Sunday were THE days for peak footfall.
The girls at Super X Country, were not wrong, the first couple of hours on Saturday 10th November picked up quickly and by mid-morning the stand was a hive of activity.
Everyone who entered our competition took away a goodie bag with a free Equesure hoof pick which went down a storm – if there’s one thing we’ve learnt this weekend, it’s that hoof picks are invaluable to all horsey folk! We even spoke to one lady who had too many – one in each coat pocket apparently! We suggested “why not add to your abundant supply” to which surprisingly she said “oh go on then!” – Clearly one can never have too many hoof picks in one’s life!
Everyone we met at the show were just the friendliest of people, sharing stories of their ponies. Everything about the show was just fabulous! Overall Equesure had a great weekend, we even gave away free Equesure saddlecloths to everyone who purchased equine insurance from us. You can never have enough saddlecloths!
Your Horse Live is a great event for picking up a bargain, seeing some great entertainment and entering free competitions and with the hoof picks a major success story from the weekend, we are sure to return next year with you’ve guessed it MORE HOOF PICKS, and who knows what else!
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.