Well what can l say,we are all back at home after the event and were shattered to say the least, no matter how much preparation you do a head of time - the closer it gets, the faster the minutes tick! The adrenalin kicks in and keeps you going, but in turn you can't sleep, you forget to eat. Everyone says 'what diet are you on?' my reply was 'all you have to do is take on a massive project and know that if you fail, then your understanding bank manager says he wants the overdraft cleared by the end of the month'!

In reality it doesn't affect just you, because those who are closest, (for me, my parents) not only feel the pressure but know what it means to you emotionally and what it takes out of you physically, my parents helped tremendously. Mum took on the tickets sales and management, l printed of the orders, then handed them over to her to log, as well as sort out the Silver and Gold eating arrangements.

Dad took on extra work with exercising the horses for me, when we are getting ready for a major production which involves the horses routine being changed, we prepare them by doing extra sessions at home. This in turn freed me up to get on with the rest of the work.

Though l had done much of the planning a long time ago, there was so much that had to be done within a time frame. like working out when to start the advertising for the M.O.T.H. this was a real pain. l was told that out of the 100% that is put into a production the audience only see a few %. They do not see what happens behind the scenes, because it was a first time production l had to source many new contacts.

Working out the advertising is a nightmare, deciding the market you are aiming at, working out your budget, plus the timings of when you should actually advertise so you get maximum exposure and  making sure you do not miss the copy deadlines- this is a joke as some of them are working 8 weeks  or more in advance! Then you need all your press releases, not everyone will print them, some say yes but only if you put in an advert! The Horse and Hound just werent interested l asked them and sent in photos three times. l was surprised as it was such a unique event l was putting on. As well as the adverts, l did alot of direct marketing such as emailing pony clubs, riding schools, livery yards and riding clubs.

There were meetings up at Unex Towerlands with Michele the center manager to make sure we had covered what we needed for the people and the horse, with David catering manager to sort the buffets and what we needed exactly. Also meeting up with Craig from the production company to sort the drapes, lights and sound, though l also has to send Craig through a 'story board' on the show, this told him all about each display  - the type of music they had, the main colour of their costumes whether they were fast of slow, this way he then had a good idea of the lighting he needed to have on the go. We had a very hard time as we were not in the position to rehearse, so we had to have everything set up to the best of our ability!

Due to the amount of horses and props that l had to take up l enlisted the help of Mark Perry with his big transporter (Mark also moves the Para horses on all their international trips), he took up eight of my horses big and little, plus all the props while l took Jack and two minis.

What you may not know was that mum had broken her lower arm less than two weeks before the show! Normally we live in the horsebox when we are away, but as it was packed with costumes that we needed and  it was used as a wardrobe changing area l felt it was best to hire a little caravan. This way mum and l could carry on with what we had to do, as well as being able to relax for the odd moment!!!!

On arrival l saw that Jack pulled a shoe on the journey, something he has never done before.  So we had to do an s.o.s., my thanks to Liz who gave us her farrier Richards number,  who galloped to our rescue!

Craigs team were on site all Friday working on the rigging, what you didn't know was that we had tried to black out all the roof lights in the ceiling, the men were working all hours into the early morning hours to do it. To our horror when we went in first thing in the morning nearly all the drapes had dropped -so then they had to go up again in the cherry picker to take them all down!

This then delayed the start to our run through with the program and the lighting - so you could say we were getting abit worried, but all in all l would like to think we pulled it off.

We had one camera working so that we have been able to put together a promotional DVD with highlights from the show, we even had a camera doing working on a timeframe release so that we got the build up.

We only had one more drama that l can remember at the moment and that was that all the Mini Marvel toys nearly sold out.. Luckily we had friends coming up for the evening show, so they went back to my dad who helped them load more up!

Atlast now that is behind us, will l do it again YES, but l now need to source  sponsorship! tanya@ttll.fsnet.co.uk     or Tel:07974 215211