In an interview with Chronicle of the Horse prior to WEG in 2018, Lisa Williams described how she found Campbell: “I found him as a 5-year-old, and he arrived in Johannesburg at 6. I don’t know why I chose him; I think horses find people.”

I kind of agree. And then also, horses lead horse people to find other horse people. I met Lisa Williams a few years ago, when she needed a biochemist on her side. Since then, we have spoken on the phone often and I’ve always got on well with her.

And yet, despite this, I’ve never asked her if we could sponsor her. She always seemed too famous, too enormously talented, too accomplished to approach.

So when I WhatsApped her a few weeks ago and asked her if she would consider being sponsored by The Herbal Horse, I nearly fell over backwards when she answered simply: “I’d be honoured.”

Campbell suffers a bit with lactic acid buildup during events, so we immediately put him onto Endurance mix. And then, for general health he went onto Ultimate mix as well.

A week after meeting with Lisa and her amazing vet, my friend and I were settling down with pizza and beer to watch the United Aviation Derby 2021 at home.

Everytime I opened my mouth to comment on anyone’s round, they had a pole or a runout. So I kept my hand firmly over my mouth during Campbell’s brilliant clear round so as not to jinx him.

No-one else came close to beating that showjumping prefection – Lisa and Campbell were impeccable.

A friend called me the other day, and when I answered, she said ‘”I’d like to speak to the sponsor of the 2021 Derby Winner please”.

“That would be ME, I answered”, jumping up and down a little. That is me.