1. How did you become involved in sponsoring the Coaching Marathon at the Royal Norfolk Show?

I’ve been a show goer my whole life. When I was a child, we went on both days every year, regardless of the weather, and I was always taken out of school if we weren’t given a Baker Day or a holiday for it. My mother was adamant we were going to the show, and my father has been a steward for around 40 years, so I’ve always looked up to the people in the higher echelons like the Sponsors, the Stewards, the Head Stewards, the Judges and so on.

When Sam Berney telephoned about three years ago and asked me if I’d be a sponsor, I relished the opportunity. I hurriedly rang my business partner, who’s also my ex-husband, albeit very amicable, and said to him, ‘Paul, we’ve been contacted by the Royal Norfolk Show, they’d like us to be a sponsor. I think this would be a very good idea for the business!’

His response was, ‘Ivan, let’s just face facts. You love the show, you’ve always loved the show, and you’d like nothing more than to have your name up at the show. So go on. If you want to do it, do it.’  And he also said at the same time, ‘I may as well accept the fact if we do it once, we’ll do it forevermore.’

For the second year I asked him again, but this year (2026) I just got on and did it.

2. What is your favourite Coaching moment?

That is very difficult – the whole thing is wonderful. Being able to sit in the Royal Box, being able to take a couple of friends and my parents into the Royal Box and onto the Sponsor’s Lawn is wonderful.  The Coaching and Multiples class, riding around the during the Marathon and going out to Marlingford Hall is fabulous.  It’s hard to name a favourite part, I think, probably, because I love every bit of it. Being on a Coach in the Grand Ring is a huge highlight, and when I did that for the first time, having seen people do it for years and years and always wanting to be in the Grand Ring myself – it was so special.

But I think the most special thing for me because I am sentimental, is being able to invite my mother into the Grand Ring with me so she can present the rosettes.

3. When you’re not supporting the Royal Norfolk, what is the day job?

What allows me to do and fund all these wonderful things is that I run, again with my ex-husband, a business called Ivan Fisher Funeral Homes. We’ve got a small family run business with three funeral homes in Norfolk, one at Hethersett, one at Hingham and one at Aylsham. We’re in our 21st year of trading and that keeps us pretty busy.

I recently joined the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association Council, I’m on the Aylsham Agricultural Association Executive and Council, I run the bell ringing in the church at Horsham St Faith where I live, I coordinate the Poppy Appeal in the village and I’m a Freeman of the City of London.

And also, there’s the classic bus interest. I’ve got a fleet of four classic buses which I use to take friends out and about.  I do ‘old folks’ trips out, bus rallies and recreating and running old routes from the past.  I’ve also got a lovely big garden which I really enjoy getting out in and keeping nice. There are not many spare hours in the day.

4. What is your favourite event (it doesn’t have to be the Royal Norfolk)?

I’m so lucky.  Because of the business and the various things I’ve got involved with, I get to do an awful lot of lovely things.  It’s very difficult to pick a favourite. The Royal Norfolk Show, I have to say without any bias is up there – not least because this is a feature about sponsoring at the Royal Show!  It has been and continues to be one of my highlights the year.

When I first had the funeral business, there wasn’t time to have any real holiday, so the two days of the show were sacrosanct. I called them my summer holiday, on the Friday after the show finished and I would book the two days off for the following year.  So, I never miss the show and always attend, come rain or shine both days.

I also enjoy the Aylsham Show which is much like the Royal Norfolk but takes place on a single day. It’s a smaller show, but it’s got a super feel to it and has quite a lot going on. I’m a steward there and do the commentary for the Countryside Ring, so that’s quite enjoyable.

Moving away from Norfolk, I enjoy the Lord Mayor’s Show in London, especially now I’m a Freeman of the City of London.

The coaching days out that I get to go to with my friend Tom Farmer, who does all the horse-drawn funerals for me, are very special. He also provides Friesian stallions for the Horseshoeing Competition at the show. He takes me to coaching events around the country.

Another enjoyable event is when the Carmen have their annual Cart Marking Ceremony in Guildhall Yard in London in July. That’s great fun with different modes of transport including horse buses, hand carts, motorcycles, cycles, military vehicles, buses, and all sorts of vehicles.

I also love my music and host a trad jazz concert in my garden to raise funds for the church.

So yes, there’s plenty to keep me pretty busy and it’s hard to pick one favourite event.

5. You are also interested in vintage vehicles, especially buses – how does this tie in with your Coaching interest?

Well, it doesn’t really. I do have motorised coaches, and they have got wheels but have a diesel engine so it’s a bit different.  In their design, they obviously lead on from the horse-drawn Coaches that I’m so very fond of, so they are akin, but not really connected. I enjoy the buses because they get me into various things that I wouldn’t normally get to do.

We were very lucky when we took an open top bus to take part in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Parade shortly before she died. That was a fantastic day taking celebrities on a three-mile trip from Horse Guards, round Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, down the Mall, past the Palace and up Birdcage Walk. That’s an experience never to be repeated.

I also like vintage cars and have got a vintage Rolls-Royce and a vintage Ford Popular that belonged to my grandfather, plus vintage tractors. I’ve also always loved steam as well, but steam engines are frightfully expensive. I’ve never quite ventured into that but it’s always been on the back burner.  It’s something I’ve always liked to go and watch, if not get involved with personally.

6. What would you like to see at future Royal Norfolk Shows?

I’ve been asking them for them to bring back the fantastic spectacle of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.  Now I’m on the Show Council, I will keep raising it!  When it was at the show in the past, it always drew a huge crowd during each of the four performances over the two days.  It was difficult to get up to the rails around the ring because it was always such a popular spectacle. It was so, so sad what happened at Royal Windsor but there’s an element of risk with the horses and gun carriages.

I also enjoy watching the heavy horses as well as the Light Trade and Private Driving, and the Ride and Drive Jumping Competition.  Another favourite is the Sunset Ceremony at the end of the second day of the show. I hope that carries on into the future and it doesn’t get watered down because all the tradition, with the Evening Hymn, Sunset and the National Anthem is so special.  Usually, it makes me choke up thinking it’s the end of the show for another year because I’m a bit muir hearted, and I look at my Mum and we give each other a knowing look, with lumps in throats as the flag gets lowered for the final time marking the end of the show.

This year, most of all, I’m really looking forward to seeing a great entry in the Coaching and Multiples class – 11 at the time of writing.  I don’t know whether it helped that I went round canvassing support at events in the foregoing year, asking people to come and selling the show to them.  I think that may have had a little to do with it and it probably helps that I love the coaching and am so enthusiastic about it.

I’m not a sponsor that just sticks some money in and may deign to sit by the ring and watch and probably go in and just hand out the rosettes. I take a great interest, and I like to see the horses and know a bit about them , having been around them all my life.  I have done a tiny bit of driving in a very amateur sort of way; not proper English Coaching Hand, I’m afraid, but I had a rein in each hand when we were teenagers. I’m so keen on it and it’s nice to be able to get to know the people. Now we’re on our third year as sponsors, I’ve got to know the people who come and exhibit in the Coaching and Multiples class.

I know the different breeds of horse and I can pick out ones that I like the look of and can tell which ones have been turned out well, although the standards are so high, and it’s so difficult to pick between the different entries, really.

7. What question should we have asked you?

I think you’ve covered an awful lot of ground with what you have asked going forward for the show.

Perhaps a good question is ‘What do I foresee?’ Well, I see myself carrying on with the sponsorship. As Paul rightly said, once we started it, he couldn’t see us ever stopping and whilst we’re in a financial position to do so, we’ll be carrying on. As a Sponsor, I’ve joined the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association Council, and I look forward to attending the meetings and getting more involved with helping to guide things forward and mucking in.

Ultimately one day I would like to be a Steward.  As I said, my father’s been a Steward since I was a small boy. He started when I was about four or five, then I became a Member aged 13, having gone to the show since being young child. I remember one of our neighbours (who I won’t name) was Lady-in-Waiting to a very grand lady and she herself was quite grand. Back then, at the Royal Norfolk Show the first day was seen as the grander day for the gentle folk and the better off people, so was slightly more expensive to get in.  And the second day was more for the farm labourers and the general people. It was never sold like that, but that’s how it was.

And this particular lady wouldn’t go on the second day, even though she was a Member and her membership got in both days, because she felt that it wasn’t for her.  But she said, ‘Oh Ivan, I’m sure you’d love to be a Member for the day.’ Although of course it wasn’t strictly allowed because tickets are non-transferable. She gave me her membership, and, on that Thursday, I went in and I thought I was the bee’s knees being able to go into the Member’s Pavilion and the Member’s Lawn. And that made me join and I’ve been a Member ever since.

After several years, the show took it upon themselves to decide to do away with nice cardboard badges on a piece of cord you tied on your lapel in favour of horrible, festival style wristbands.  I wrote and complained about it but didn’t get a reply!  I thought, no, this isn’t for me anymore. I can’t be walking around with one of these horrid wristbands; I want my Member’s Badge. That year I decided to upgrade, so Mum and I became Vice Presidents and we continue to be.

Since I was a boy, I loved that my father went to the show in a posh suit and bowler hat. He was one of those men that people came up to and asked questions, and that made me feel very special.  I’ve got the idea that it’s the sort of thing that you should inherit so ideally, I’d like to take over from him as a Steward when he decides it’s time to hang up his bowler hat.

But for now, the show is sacrosanct and we have our routine. Mum and I have the Wednesday together, getting there first thing and dressing up in our best clothes, usually in new outfits.  Now we’re Sponsors, it does involve quite a lot of sitting in the Sponsor’s Tent watching the Grand Ring.  Then on the Thursday my father comes with us and it’s his stewarding day.  When he finishes, he joins us and he has the chance to do what he wants to do in the afternoon. So that’s how our show pans out.

The 2026 Royal Norfolk Show will be on 24th & 25th June in Norwich.