I should perhaps start by writing a few words about who I am, and how I became to be in this position, as I am sure most of you know nothing about me.

We acquired our first Suffolk in 1997, my father being fed up with the few sheep we were using to keep some odd bits of grass on the farm in order. As with many of his generation he liked the idea of having a Suffolk, it was what he remembered from his childhood and youth. However, somehow it was to be me who owned it and be a member of the SHS. I still don’t get the logic of that
decision! However having acquired a couple of mares, I soon found that I could handle them and it was decided that we should be breeding from them. We resurrected the Besthorpe Prefix as it had been used on the farm during the 1930’s and 1940’s by my Mother’s Uncle. However finding a suitable stallion that was close by proved a bit more difficult. Then Randy Hiscox said to Father it would be easier if we had our own stallion; of course he knew of one! Ben (Robeck Classic the First) duly arrived, and again I found handling him was something I could do. From there it was thought that we should be showing him. Looking back this was considerable ‘mission creep’ from the idea of replacing a few sheep with a horse.

In schooling him for the show ring it wasn’t too much more to break him into chains and shaft work. Vintage horse equipment had been my interest before owning a horse and we were soon entering turnout and agricultural implement classes. In 2009 my father died and this coincided with stallions being barred from turnout classes. I decided to just continue with breeding.

More recently with a large part of the farm being earmarked for development, meaning a move of premises, breeding has been wound down. Along with what was supposed to take a couple of years becoming ten and counting, I am now hopeful in a couple of years to be back to where we were.

Having been showing for a few years, I was approached to stand for Council. Having been elected I have served both on the Breeding and Scientific  committees. When Roger Clark stepped down from organising the Suffolk ploughing match I took over running it until Covid finished the event. Hopefully we will be able to resurrect the event
this autumn.