Horseyholiday - Horsey Hickstead

And so on to the core of E's Horsey Holiday, a day at the Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead.  Now, I remember Hickstead from its regular appearances on TV though, rummaging through what is left of my memory, that must have been over 40 years ago.

It would seem that (a) not much has changed - the key fences and the bank are still there, and (b) the lack of public TV coverage of show jumping these days means that it no longer draws large crowds, as, assuming we'd struggle to find seven seats together, we got in fairly early - to find an almost empty stand.

If anyone is expecting horsey detail you're asking the wrong person.  There were two main classes both, um, with horses.  Every third rider seemed to be a Whittaker.

I rather enjoyed the day.  Mostly the pleasure of not having to do anything but watch the world go by and take photographs and graze our way through a picnic.  650 photographs might have been an excess, but hey, what high speed firing for except for things like this.

I was amazed how close you could get to some of the jumps, Devil's Dyke in particular was about an arms length away. (Extra).

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Home for cake (you need to see that extra) and Indian takeaway.