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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