Horseytalk.net Special Interview

Charlotte Packham

Meet Miss England 2010. Yes, Miss England 2010.

Because horsey girl, Charlotte Packham, has decided to have another go at winning the title, the most prestigious beauty pagent in the country.
This time, however, she is determined to win.
She also wants to run her own heat, Miss Equestrian

“I will be entering again for the 2010 competition,” she says. “I had such a great time. I met loads of fantastic people. It was so lovely for me to be a girl for a change instead of being in jeans and ariat boots. Walking down that catwalk was such a great experience for me.

“Since the car accident I was in a few years ago, I have been unable to ride, and although I am the one who looks after the horses and keeps them looking tidy etc, it's always my partner, Ben's show as he is the rider. So it was really nice to have a few days where I was in the limelight.”

But she doesn’t just want to be in the lime-light herself. She wants to share it with other horsey girls.

“In my opinion, horsey girls should enter the competition,” she says. “To prove to the general public that we can scrub up OK and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I had the most amazing time at the semi - final and at the final. I met some amazing girls. Obviously there were some who thought that they deserved the title more than others, but you get that in all walks of life I think.”
How did Charlotte get involved in the Miss England competition?
“ I entered through a website that e-mails me with modelling jobs every day. I never thought another thing about it as in the modelling industry for every 20 jobs you apply for, you may only get one or two. I then had a phone call from the Miss England office and was asked to go to the Fresh Academy in Watford for a photo-shoot.
“There were maybe 35 or so girls in my heat and we had to gain as many text votes as possible to be in the top 10 of our group. I luckily made it in to the top 10. From there, all 10 girls were reviewed by the judges and a winner was chosen, or in my case two winners were chosen. I was picked alongside the nicest girl I have come across for a long time.

“From there I went to the semi-final, held at Champneys Springs. We had a day of press calls and interviews etc followed by a parade in our eco wear in front of the judges, including the lovely Chris Fountain from Hollyoaks. We were asked to wear something re-cycled / borrowed etc. I found this fantastic designer in London who made dresses from parachutes used in the 1950's. She very kindly made my dress to order and it went down really well. One of the judges was the founder of an ethical fashion website so she had seen the designers parachute before. They loved it so much in fact that one of the judges ordered one to wear on the evening of the final!

“I was then one of 10 picked from 60 to make it to the finals and join the 51 other girls who had made it through from various heats.

“The final was held in July at the Hilton Metropole in London. It was over two days and was packed with fast track competitions into the final 15. We had a huge amount of time taken up with press calls and interviews. We also had some really fantastic catwalk training from one of the Miss England team, Lisa. She was really lovely and very patient with us. For me, walking on a wobbly stage in high heels is not something I do very often.

“The first evening we had to wear another eco outfit, this time based on the 70's. I fortunately was able to borrow a dress from a friend. We also had to send in a two-minute talent DVD which was watched that night.

“The following day we had a real early start to get into our student fashion wear, a dress designed and made by a student from a fashion university. For all of the other girls this was a fairly straight forward procedure. But not for me. I had not been able to meet my student beforehand as I had one who was on holiday before the final. In the end she turned up at 6am in my hotel room with a piece of material that looked like, as many said ' Tinkerbelle gone wrong! ' Anyway, it was thankfully finished and pinned on to me by 8 o'clock for the BBC news to film us live. We then had a jam packed day full of rehearsals until around 5pm when we were to get ready for the show.

“The evening started with us being introduced by the presenters. We then walked down the catwalk, one at a time in our evening wear with our details being read out loud. We then had to wear the awful fashion-student dresses again. This time walking to the song Poker face! There were then other things to follow such as Mr England being crowned and singers etc.

“The final 15 were then called onto the stage for one last walk and then the winner was crowned.. I did not make it into the final 15 but this has not put me off. I met such lovely people and had such a great time I will definitely be entering again this year.”

In the meantime, Charlotte has plenty on her hands.

She is still Miss East Sussex until May / June 2010 and has a busy programme of events to visit.

She has been talking to the Miss England organisers about running her own heat next year.

“I would like for it to be ' Miss Equestrian ', she says. “I would hold an evening where the top 50 entrants have to do a catwalk type thing wearing a number of outfits etc. They would also have to raise as much money for charity as possible. I would also like to be able to have a wildcard to get one of the girls to the final of my heat by maybe having a show jumping class or something like that...I am in discussions with the Miss England team at present so nothing is final but I would certainly like to think that it could happen if I had enough participants.”
And, of course, she is still busy looking after the horses.

“My partner, Ben Dalton, is a professional show jumper,” she says. “We work mainly from his family owned stud in Ashford, Kent breeding and producing quality sports horses. We have a variety of top show jumping bloodlines in our breeding stallions including a 17.2h coloured who is directly by the famous ' Darco '. We also have a 16.2 jet black stallion with 4 white legs who promises to pass on his beautiful temperament and movement alongside his great looks by Edison / Jasper / Ramiro Z.

“New to the stud is a very promising stallion Cassio, We are looking forward to what the future holds for him and his young stock. He has only been out to two local shows with us so far and has already managed to jump three double clears with a place in each class. He is a 16.3h bright bay by Calvados out of a Quidam de Ravel mare.

After looking through his breeding lines, we were very excited to see that he has a very, very similar family to that of Laura Renwick’s top class mare Limelight de Breve. His first crop of foals are due within the next couple of weeks, which we are very excited about.
“We also offer for sale a wide range of youngsters ranging from foals to eight, nine or sometimes even older horses. If we haven't got what you’re looking for, we can promise to find you exactly what you want.

“Myself, Ben and his father Graham have some exciting new horses to start competing this season and we are currently on the look out for any other horses available to compete on behalf of owners.”

Busy girl, Charlotte.
If she’s not careful she won’t have time to enter the Miss England competition in 2010.
But if she does, we’re sure she’ll win.