Hovis_and_SidsMum
Well-Known Member
As promised earlier heres brief launch day report!
As I'd already explained Hovis couldn't go to the summer Fayre at Bransby as the strict quarantine rules mean no non resident horses are allowed onto the yards. So this coupled with the fact i did a radio interview on the saturday with the great Tina Bettison did seem to cause a lot of sulking from the big man on sunday morning. Although admitedly this could have also been due to my refusal to move his fence back and allow him some more grass?!
So despite the fayre not opening til 11am I was asked to be there by 0930 to get set up. I didn't sleep well the night before and felt sick the whole way to Bransby - seriously I was shaking like a leaf thinking what would happen if no one wanted to buy the book! I'd been told that the demographic that go the open days is not strongly "horsey" and so it might be a struggle to pursuade non horsey people to buy it. As it happened there was a good mix of people and I sold a lot of copies to elderly ladies and gents, teenagers as well as people who had their own horses.
It was the first time I saw the cut out of Hovis and its gorgeous! Its not quite full sized as apparently it was too heavy but it worked well and the kids loved it. I can only imagine how the real deal is going to go down at the Lincolnshire show! We shall also film and photo Hovis meeting his cut out image as i have a feeling it might be amusing!
Its fair to say the day went in fits and starts, but at some points we were three deep in people all queueing for the book and for me to sign it. I was thankful for taking some paper to write names down before I wrote in the books as there were a lot of very lovely names with very complicated spellings! The gift shop were also selling copies so people were bringing copies around for me to sign them as well.
I also got to meet some of the Trustees who I'd not met before and they were very lovely and said some nice things which was rather embarrassing but reminded me of why I was doing this. I did seem to spend most of the day blushing like a virgin at a chippendales gig - why did I not put any makeup on?!!
It was a long old day and of course I didn't really get to see any of the show as every time i moved another crowd turned up. In fact going to the loo was a challenge at times!! The one time i managed to venture out i had a microphone shoved under my nose and was forced to waffle about the book for 5 minutes over the tannoy system which was desperately embarrassing so I scuttled back to my little corner and stayed there!!
It was nice weather and everyone I spoke to had had a good day out. The foot traffic seemed very good so i'll let you know how many cars we had when we get the figures through.
I met DaisyDo from the forum and lots and lots of great people (both horse owners and just horse lovers) and had giggle with some very flirty over 70's who should have known better! In fact one elderly gent took my picture and a video and informed me he was putting me on the internet so I'm not sure whether to be a) amazed at his computer literacy or b) scared to death of where on the internet he was putting me?!!
Anyway all in all it was a great day, very humbling, very exciting and very hard on the wrist (oooeeeerrr!!)! I've got a few photos of the cut out of hovis and i know lots of photos were taken by the photographer so as soon as i get them i'll post them online.
Thank you once again for all the support from the great HHO community. I'm sure you're all sick of me going on but this is all for charity and they really do do great work.
For those of you who have bought the book I hope you enjoy it and that you think it is worthy of your £4.99.
Thanks again
Karen xx
As I'd already explained Hovis couldn't go to the summer Fayre at Bransby as the strict quarantine rules mean no non resident horses are allowed onto the yards. So this coupled with the fact i did a radio interview on the saturday with the great Tina Bettison did seem to cause a lot of sulking from the big man on sunday morning. Although admitedly this could have also been due to my refusal to move his fence back and allow him some more grass?!
So despite the fayre not opening til 11am I was asked to be there by 0930 to get set up. I didn't sleep well the night before and felt sick the whole way to Bransby - seriously I was shaking like a leaf thinking what would happen if no one wanted to buy the book! I'd been told that the demographic that go the open days is not strongly "horsey" and so it might be a struggle to pursuade non horsey people to buy it. As it happened there was a good mix of people and I sold a lot of copies to elderly ladies and gents, teenagers as well as people who had their own horses.
It was the first time I saw the cut out of Hovis and its gorgeous! Its not quite full sized as apparently it was too heavy but it worked well and the kids loved it. I can only imagine how the real deal is going to go down at the Lincolnshire show! We shall also film and photo Hovis meeting his cut out image as i have a feeling it might be amusing!
Its fair to say the day went in fits and starts, but at some points we were three deep in people all queueing for the book and for me to sign it. I was thankful for taking some paper to write names down before I wrote in the books as there were a lot of very lovely names with very complicated spellings! The gift shop were also selling copies so people were bringing copies around for me to sign them as well.
I also got to meet some of the Trustees who I'd not met before and they were very lovely and said some nice things which was rather embarrassing but reminded me of why I was doing this. I did seem to spend most of the day blushing like a virgin at a chippendales gig - why did I not put any makeup on?!!
It was a long old day and of course I didn't really get to see any of the show as every time i moved another crowd turned up. In fact going to the loo was a challenge at times!! The one time i managed to venture out i had a microphone shoved under my nose and was forced to waffle about the book for 5 minutes over the tannoy system which was desperately embarrassing so I scuttled back to my little corner and stayed there!!
It was nice weather and everyone I spoke to had had a good day out. The foot traffic seemed very good so i'll let you know how many cars we had when we get the figures through.
I met DaisyDo from the forum and lots and lots of great people (both horse owners and just horse lovers) and had giggle with some very flirty over 70's who should have known better! In fact one elderly gent took my picture and a video and informed me he was putting me on the internet so I'm not sure whether to be a) amazed at his computer literacy or b) scared to death of where on the internet he was putting me?!!
Anyway all in all it was a great day, very humbling, very exciting and very hard on the wrist (oooeeeerrr!!)! I've got a few photos of the cut out of hovis and i know lots of photos were taken by the photographer so as soon as i get them i'll post them online.
Thank you once again for all the support from the great HHO community. I'm sure you're all sick of me going on but this is all for charity and they really do do great work.
For those of you who have bought the book I hope you enjoy it and that you think it is worthy of your £4.99.
Thanks again
Karen xx
, I have a lot of respect for you, making the book happen for such a good cause. You should be very proud of what you've achieved.
