Spreadsheet b*tch

From the 28th May 2014, being a spreadsheet b*tch paid off.

The first signs of an event were up. The rope along the drive, the straight lined, well mown grass, the outlined cross country course. it suddenly became apparent that an event was happening. The days that had been spent infront of a computer screen and sending out tickets were finally paying off. 

As the marquees came up, my life became more frantic. Of course, my life couldn't be as frantic as that of Jane and Laura; the poor souls that have to deal with my inquistive questions, my printing mistakes and making embarrassing blunders, an example being telling people the wrong things on the telephones. How we have survived, is beyond me! It is fascinating being part of the group, part of the home team. 

Watching the days go by with more and more tasks ticked off and the days getting longer in order to make the final finishing touches was incredible. Everything, even the amount of water bottles has been counted, and everything must be signed off. 

Everything is considered, everyone is appreciated and made to feel welcome. People flit in with different banners, which would hack their company if Bramham forgot to put them up; the sponsors get their own special drinks parties, everyone is made to feel special and significant and all the way through. There seems to be nothing forgotten.

More people are phoning up asking if they can bring dogs, or if they can bring two cars to camping... the answer is always no - one camping pitch = one car pass; but this is causing more upset than anything!! Obviously cars and flexibility matter more than the event itself!

The weather was impeccable, it was delightful and sunny...

The adrenaline was rushing and everyone was getting excited about the four days we'd all been working towards!

I daren't drive over the neat, lush grass,
so this was the closet I could get to begin with! 

The beginnings

Each day, at Bramham Park, is full of different spreadsheets, different people and different requirements.

For me, not knowing what each day held was a weird and slightly daunting experience. I've always liked to plan and have a sense of direction for my day, even if that be eating the last bagel, or getting to uni in less than 7 minutes...!

Arriving at work I would be required to check emails and answer any telephone calls, I bet at the beginning, this would be so frustrating as all I could say would be 'I'll just check for you, give me a second' I am now an encyclopaedia of all things Bramham Horse Trials (don't quote me on that!).

Filing entries for Youngstock and Hunter classes was my first continuous job. The hunter and young stock classes run on the Thursday and Friday alongside the dressage for the main CCI*** and CIC*** and Under 25s CCI*** events. The hunter entries required a
registration number and other details, some entries needed chasing up and the young stock entries, some foals didn't have names. You don't realise how much people consider their horses to be their gods until you tell them they require a registration number and that it is obligatory. Literally, don't step between a competition and their entry, if you can avoid it. Obviously others can be absolute dreams to work with.

Bramham Horse Trials, as a three day event, requires a cross country course. As Mr Lane Fox, the owner of the estate, doesn't like to see the cross country fences during the rest of the year, they are all stored away from sight, apart from a few. The lucky ditch and hedge (see photos) and the water jumps, are the few that are allowed to remain.

For the first few months, things didn't really take much shape, it was a lot of package making for the campers and a lot of different calls to deal with but as most time went buy, the laminator became my best friend ever, its beautiful (see photo).

Bramham Horse Trials decided to use e-Tickets this year. An e-Ticket requires you to scan a bar code as you form of entry. My humble opinion is that these things are awesome, less paper wasted and a lot less stamps required to send out paper tickets. People complained that there wasn't the 'stub' of the ticket that they could keep as a souvenir, but others said they were a great change and a lot easier. It meant that you had your ticket as soon as you bought it and there wasn't the risk of them getting lost in the post.


Yours laminatingly,

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The comings about of Placement Uno

A cliché to start us off! A dream has always been to run an event, be that equine related or another area. I can't put my finger on the exact passion but there is something about that really gets my adrenaline rushing. The fact that you spend all of the time working towards one event, that lasts maybe 2 or 3 days, but takes up to a year to organise, is fascinating.

As I have previously stated, part of second year has to be done on placement. This is a module in itself totalling up to 30 credits, I believe. The time came around to think about placements and to be perfectly honest, I didn't do anything. I wrote my CV and didn't really think any more about it, until everyone else had got their placements under their belts; and typically they were all incredible.

A day came around at the end of February, when I had completed different things, like coursework, getting the Caledonian Society (my little baby and a huge success I might add) ball out of the way and revision was in full swing... or procrastination was definitely underway, rather! As a form of procrastination, I decided to write my cover letter, this, of course, took nearly a whole day and near the end of the day I sent some emails out to all the horse trials teams in England, not expecting any reply. By about 5pm, I had bagged myself an interview and the placement would be determined on the success of my interview.

I had applied to Badminton, Burghley, Blenheim, Blair and Bramham. I had two replies, one telling me that I had sent the wrong email to them and the second from Bramham asking if I was going home at any point and would I be available for an interview. Bramham happens to be less than 15 miles away from my home so an easy access point.

Although not much revision happened that day, I had in fact done one thing well. April to June 2014 would be spent at, and preparing for the Equi-Trek Bramham International Horse Trials.

Placement 1, check.

Backlog of letters

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy, from partying to organising a horse trials (finally). The  time off I've had has either been riding my horse or catching up on sleep. Blimey, I am exhausted. 

Seeing as the last few weeks of posts haven't happened, my plan is to do a post every few days and go through what I would, ideally, have posted, had I been on time, organised and running on recharged batteries. So please excuse the past tense that may be used to describe situations/happenings, but I will endeavour to recreate the best 4 days of my life so far... or maybe close to them..

All I can say as an update now is that I am exhausted, thoroughly enjoying life and have been counting quite a few 'officials' vests... who knew that my maths lessons would actually come in so handy for my placement.. 

Parties have been plenty and the life behind the scenes has been incredible. I would imagine I am the same type of tiredness that you get from having a baby, exhausted by what has been but similarly excited about what is the come (obvs my placement doesn't scream and poo... it has been known to wake me up in the night though!)

Enjoy mes amis...

Once again, I apologise for the lack of exciting info in this post, but it acts as a similar role as that of a napkin when having a burger... a kind gesture that could potentially be useful! 

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