Sarah Todd: The balloon goes up as our horses are spooked by the guy in the sky

There’s nothing worse than worrying and having to race back before dark.

It was sod’s law – or perhaps it should be Todd’s law? – that the first evening she was left out, a hot-air balloon looked like it was going to land in the paddock.

We were at a barbecue and something made me uneasy, just one of those feelings, so the children were left tucking into sausages and a dash home was made.

All the thoroughbred foals next door – one’s stud fee was more than £30,000 – were running around like headless chickens. The new pony was terrified and it’s to be hoped the pilot (is that the right word?) had good enough eyesight to see the very Anglo-Saxon gestures being made at him.

We get quite a lot of balloons and they’re lovely to see, but quite why this one had to be going so low and directly over the horses is beyond me. Do they have absolutely no steering?

There was a van driving around which this ballooning ignoramus presumed was full of some sort of support team. Couldn’t they have done something? Radioed up to tell of the four-legged chaos going on?

It’s more the noise than the actual balloon that upsets the animals. We had somebody staying in a caravan that night and it made their holiday for them. Oblivious of the horses, they just thought it was the most magnificent spectacle they’d ever seen.

Back at the barbecue an hour later, my white ‘going out’ trousers were blathered up and any appetite had disappeared.

Will have to get the muck off in case it’s trousers rather than dress weather at the Yorkshire Show. There must be thousands of women who will be hoping to shake off their husbands before they reach the cars and machinery. Equally, there must be blokes galore who’d really rather not meander around the stalls.

My father is an ‘in order’ show-goer – taking it row after row so you know you’ve seen everything. I’m the same.

The Husband can wander from one side of the showground, say forestry, right across without ‘doing’ what’s between.

I can remember my grandparents going and having the same debates about what each wanted to see and then (the trick is to let them think they’ve come with the idea) those glorious words ‘meet up later’.

It’s wonderful that Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are visiting again. Bet they’d like an hour off from handshaking to look around like the rest of us. My guess is that it’s ‘in order’ for him and wandering for her.