On the 26th May I attended Houghton Horse Trials for the 3rd year running and had an absolute smashing time! As always, the shopping wasn't great but I never expect too much as it is quite a small local event and me and my mum go there just for the show rather than the shopping nowadays.
Upon arrival, we had a good scout out at the warm up arena for the Cross Country as we drove down to park up the car which as always was very well organised. Once parked, we headed down to the central jumping arena which the shopping tents surrounded. There was a small selection of shops including Nags Essentials, Tiggas Saddlery, Devoucoux and Chatham Footwear just to name the main few. There was one tent in particular than made hand made polo belts where I picked up myself a new belt in a pink, cream and blue colour. There was also a tend for Saracen Horse Feeds who were the sponsors this year and have also been previously.
We had a quick glance around all the shops and walked all the way around the ring to end up in the little food stalls area where we purchased a hot chocolate each and a bag of 6 hot, sugared doughnuts which has become a little tradition we have started. We sat on a bench beside the Main Arena (fancy name I know) as we scoffed our delicious goodies.
Once we had finished breakfast, we headed off to the cross country course for a wander so I could grab some shots and we ended up walking around the whole of the cross country course for most of the day. I was absolutely in my element waiting for the eventers to come bombing along the track and capturing the perfect shot and embracing their strength and skill. It was a dream come true to finally take proper photos using the correct settings and knowing what I was aiming for.
After walking all the way around the course we both started to feel rather peckish so we walked back to the car to collect our picnic popping into all the shopping tents as we went. There wasn't really anything that took our fancy but I did decide I wanted to get some loafers from Chatham Footwear as I had been eyeing up quite a few different pairs online and wanted to have a try on and see which ones I liked best. Devastatingly enough, the shoe sizing was an absolute disaster and they were such a wide fit for my narrow feet and I'm normally a spot on 4 but they were way too big and the threes were too tiny. Walking away rather disheartened I knew a relax in the sun with my picnic would cheer me up.
We set up our fold out chairs in a lovely spot just outside of the Main Arena as I wanted to watch the CICO*** International Showjumping to get some good photos of some well known riders.
Our picnic consisted of a chicken pasta salad which we made ourselves, sausage rolls and a can of Pimms each. We both sat in our chairs absolutely devouring our yummy pasta and enjoying the show jumping. Fortunately, it wasn't until I had finished my pasta that the riders I was desperate to get photos of then started to do their rounds. I was able to get photos of Ben Hobday, Pippa Funnell and Gemma Tattteshall who all did very good rounds.
After enjoying our lunch and feeling like we'd seen enough Show Jumping, we walked back over to the Cross Country course not far from the jumping arena and watched some more cross country where I once more took a whole load of photos and was having the best time.
It was so lovely to spend the day just me and my mum watching the jumping and feeling like we were somewhere else away from it all and doing something different from the normal routine.
After having such a great time at Houghton it's made me want to go to more horse events and work on my photography a lot more. Whilst I was at Houghton I did in fact spot the Events Through a Lens team which I followed on Instagram Stories throughout the day but was too shy to approach them!
I'm very sad to have to wait a year for this to come back round again but I'm sure we will be visiting a few more locations to experience so more this year or the next. I am hoping to attend Burghley this year but I will have to keep you posted as to if that happens or not.
I hope you enjoyed this post, I feel like it was very long and quite the story but it was a winning vote that I post this blog post as an itinerary of the day rather than just the photos I took on the day.
Much Love,
Jazmine x