On Sunday 19th May I was fortunate enough to visit Rockingham Castle International Horse Trials for the first time all thanks to the organisers themselves. This was because in the weeks leading upto the event they held a competition on their Instagram account giving away a pair of tickets for any day, a pair of Fairfax & Favor Rockingham boots in Limited Edition Navy with Tan trim, a Hiho Silver snaffle bangle, a Whale of A Time sweatshirt, a Joules Seconds cross body bag, a large bottle of Two Birds Spirits Gin in the flavour Parma Violets and a lunch hamper for two put together by Rockingham for us. Fair to say that I was absolutely speechless but incredibly thrilled to find out that I had been announced the winner.
Events of The Day...
It started with a 2.5 hour journey from Norfolk to Rockingham. We made the rookie mistake of taking the A11 on the way there and got stuck in a fair bit of traffic just moving really slowly due to the new road they are building from Cambridge to Huntingdon but we went the quicker, more scenic route through West Norfolk for the drive home.
Upon arrival, we handed over our complimentary tickets and were directed to our parking space only a few metres away from the main gates/cross country course. We headed straight to the secretaries tent to collect my goodies as it was around 12pm ish by the time we arrived and we were starving! In the tent an array of branded bags were laid before me and I was in awe of how much stuff I had really won (safe to say mum was too)! I tried on the pair of Rockingham boots to ensure the size and fit was right and then we went on our way back to the car to unload the bags. At the car I had a proper good look through at all the items and I put on the Hiho bangle and swapped my back over to my new Joules one, took a few photos and headed back to the cross country course to enjoy a spot of lunch! The lunch hamper was absolutely amazing, we had a bottle of prosecco each, salmon sandwiches, cheese and pickle sandwiches, fruit scones, chocolate brownies, sausage rolls (which were to DIE for) and a packet of Tyrells crisps each.
After spending a good amount of time enjoying our lunch and the cross country action, we decided to head to the main ring and watch a bit of the show jumping and check out the shopping tents. To name a few of those that had tents, Fairfax & Favor, Hiho Silver, Joules Seconds, Ruff & Tumble, Two Birds Spirits, plus many, many more! We ended up visiting them all a few times round before really considering any purchases as it was so busy in each tent. Between window shopping we enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate from one of the food/drink stalls whilst catching some of the show jumping action. Towards the end of the day we decided to go for one last browse round each tent in hopes of a purchase or two and both me and mum ended up getting a couple items each. I purchased a couple of items for wearing at the stables - a quarter zip top from Toggi and a body warmer from ProSport and then managed to hunt out a couple gems from the Joules Second stand. If you've never heard of Joules Seconds (I hadn't until Rockingham), they are a separate shop to the normal Joules stands and the sell purely items which are either defected and not in a good enough condition to sell full price or a sample item in one of their shops. On first inspection, most items were either ripped, the zip was broken or a button was missing but once the tent had quietened down me and mum studied each rack and ended up with a couple items in perfect condition which as you can imagine we were both chuffed about! I got myself a new bobble hat and a striped button up top.
That pretty much sums up my amazing first experience at Rockingham International Horse Trials being sponsored by Fairfax & Favor for the second year running. On our way home, mum treated me to a Iced Frappuccino from Starbucks and before we knew it, we were back home again!
I hope you enjoyed this blog post, apologies for the delay in getting it live!
Much Love,
Jazmine x