Wow what a couple of weeks we have had, one the road attending Equestrian Events! First of all we had the pleasure of attending Northallerton Equestrian Centre for their mini ODE and eventers challenge. I would highly recommend this venue the staff are friendly and welcoming, and the venue itself is just beautiful and well organised.
For the duration of the event me and my husband stayed at a little farm B&B called Lovehill Farm ran by a lovely couple who ran a pig farm.
They served us a beautiful English breakfast each morning consisting of mushroom, tomato, home made sausage and their very own bacon with a glass of homemade apple juice.
The farm is literally 8 minutes away from Northallerton Equestrian so anyone planning on competing at this venue, this is the place to book.
Whilst we attended this event we met some of North Yorkshire’s police department who managed to security mark over 50 sets of tack and a couple of bikes during their stay. This is such a fabulous service to stop the theft of your items during your travels and best of all it is completely free.
We attended Northallerton for two days then we were back on the road again heading back home to re stock ready for Arena UK.
Our journey to Arena UK took a little longer than planned because we were stuck in traffic most the way and I needed to use the bathroom at nearly every service (week bladder is an understatement) so all in all it took just over 5 hours.
When we eventually arrived at Arena UK we were blown away if you have ever been you will know it is massive and I couldn’t tell you how many arenas there were.
We managed to put our tent up just in time before the heaven’s opened but then my husband noticed our tent was leaking water (just what we needed after such a long drive). We decided not to leave our stock in so instead we put up our banner and rails and then left to find our hotel.
We booked a hotel called The Gregory it was a 12 minute drive from Arena UK so once again very good location for anyone visiting the venue. Our room was beautiful and the food served in the restaurant downstairs was very good and well presented.
Anyone who knows me and my husband knows that we love our food, so of coarse whilst in Grantham we searched the restaurants and their reviews and the food we ate was absolutely gorgeous we only wish we had them in Newcastle.
Firstly we found a Thai restaurant called Siam Garden the food was so fresh and tasty and there was so much choice on the menu that we made sure we visited a couple of times so we didn’t miss out.
The second restaurant we visited was a family run Nepalese called Namaste Dining the food was amazing and the waiter was the happiest person I think I’ve ever met. If you plan to visit this place make sure to try their honey/chilli new potatoes and their chicken Momo (they also have a vegan Momo).
During our time at arena UK we met some lovely new customers some who even returned throughout the week, we also had some great feedback regarding the quality and look of our clothing.
As the week went on our customers were walking around wearing their Ard Reason items, as a designer and business owner this gave me so much joy and really made me sit back and think about what I have achieved in such a short period of time and the feeling I got was overwhelming.
The best part about doing a trade stand, is the people you meet along the way. No matter where you go with your trade stand you become part of a community a family and the fellow traders we met at Arena Uk were no exception.
We met an amazing couple who we hope to keep in touch with, they were the owners of Fylde Saddlery we never stopped laughing the whole duration.
Across from us was a lovely lady called Jane who I’m actually meeting up with again to share a shell scheme with at YHL. She is the proud owner of Carousel Saddlery so on our stall you will be able to buy Ard Reason clothing along with your every day horsey essentials.
We also met an amazing lady called Val who does the most amazing dog collar and leads, they look like showing browbands, she also does the most amazing hats where you can mix and match her customised feather pins to. I bought a hat along with some other things which I wont say as they are Xmas gifts (yes I start really early). Val’s company is called Lafond Browbands I highly recommend you go check her out.
Lastly we met a lovely lady called Sarah who worked for a company called supreme Products, she was in the tent beside us and also had many of laughs with us throughout our stay.
We stayed at Grantham for 6 nights but then sadly it was time to return home, you kind of get that feeling you get when you have had a really good holiday then need to return back to reality. But on the plus side my little dog nutmeg was over joyed to see us return. I would like to say the same for my daughter but she is 13 going on 27 so her only interest is her mobile phone however that is a story for another day.