MAY
This month I begin my training for the Magnolia Cup, the charity horse race held at Goodwood. The race last year was incredible, but a total blur. The only conscious moment in that minute and a half was the sudden realisation that there was no one in front of me and I was winning the race. I vowed to hang up my boots with a 100 per cent success record, but seem to have been tempted back!
I've been riding since I was five. My mum has a cottage in Northamptonshire so she took me to the local riding school, and that's how it began. None of the rest of my family rides or has ever had any interest in it, but it's my favourite thing. I have a horse in Warwickshire, a bitchy and sometimes adorable mare called Dolly. (For the Goodwood race I'll be riding a proper racehorse.) With Dolly I do 'eventing'- dressage, showjumping and cross-country. It's the perfect escape from the fashion world and university because you have to put your ego totally aside and concentrate on the horse.
I travel to New York to shoot a campaign for a Chinese brand called Ochirly with Mario Testino. I started modelling at 15, when I was cast in a story for British Vogue called Young London that Mario was shooting, and I've worked with him many times since. The shoot is outside and, as it rains all day, we end up having an hour and a half to do it all. We shoot on the street with some dogs, some lovely whippets. It's me and a very sweet and suitably manicured Argentine male model.
At the moment I don't get much time to ride, only one or two days a week. During the week I live with my dad in Notting Hill. I'm in my second year studying history of art at the Courtauld Institute and this month my dissertation is due and exams are looming.
In New York again for Frieze Art Fair. It's my mum's Christmas present to me. I do a lot of walking around, getting sore feet and going to see art. I buy a ring by an artist I love. Do some revision on the plane on the way home. I desperately need to catch up on 'semiotic theories of art' (something I apparently understood in the first weeks of the autumn term but has since left my mind entirely).
Every evening seems to be spent making incomprehensible and oversized mind maps on the kitchen table. I staple A4 pieces of paper together until they're the size of a person, then scribble nonsensical notes on them in the hope that some of it will infiltrate my mind. It's a way of visualising how different ideas connect. By eight o'clock I'm done, so have dinner and go to bed.
Campbell with one of her 'mind maps' at home in Notting Hill
JUNE
I finish my exams on 1 June. Hallelujah! I emerge blinking and unfit from the library but get up at 5am to leave for Salisbury in my smelly little VW Polo. It's one of those disgusting days where you have a cigarette before it's even light. As at last year's Goodwood race, I have been riding out for the trainer George Baker in Salisbury, and I rode his horse, which confusingly is also named George Baker. In spite of my post-exam hangover and lack of practice, it's quite successful. After riding out I have a sausage bap, which the other jockeys politely decline. They have to be so light. It's a bizarre mixture of being incredibly strong and incredibly weak at the same time, so they really don't eat much at all. Straight after riding out I'm back in the car and it's another two-hour drive to Warwickshire to ride Dolly.
Campbell on the racehorse George Baker near Salisbury
I go to the British Racing School in Newmarket for a safety assessment and a fitness test for Goodwood. The bleep test is particularly hideous, dredging up long-repressed memories of games at school. I swiftly realise my love of cigarettes and my love of winning are not compatible. I have to run between two cones, reaching each before the bleep sounds. The bleeps speed up, so you get more stressed as you get more tired. The head trainer gives me endless undignified exercises to do and I'm waved off with an 'If it ain't hurting, it ain't working'.
I catch the first Eurostar to Paris to shoot a film for an iPad app for a new magazine called Obsession. It's an incredibly long day. I start at 7am and don't get back to my hotel until 2am the following morning.
A couple of days later I'm up at 5am again to be in Salisbury to ride out at 7am. The 'lads and lasses' who ride out at George Baker's are all tiny, pumped full of testosterone and filthy-minded. It's a potent combination. To get fit for the race I'm doing lots of cardio (all the jockeys run). Every time I procrastinate I think, 'If I don't win at Goodwood, I'm going to put it down to not going for that one run.' I feel I'll be annoyed with myself if I don't put a lot of effort in. Cycling also works well, particularly if you take the seat off your bike. I've been zooming around Hyde Park with my bottom in the air.
I do a show for the London-based jeweller David Morris to celebrate his company's 50th anniversary, and the stylist Katie Grand styles the show. It's a special event for his buyers and clients, and my 16-year-old sister, Olympia, is in the show, too. I wear some beautiful jewels and parade around the gardens of Spencer House in Mayfair. All my work is booked through the model agency Viva, and I'm happy to leave it to them to decide exactly what I do and don't do.
Top: Edie Campbell being made-up for the jeweller David Morris's anniversary show Photo: CLAIRE HUISH Bottom:modelling for Burberry.
JULY
I spend the weekend at the Hop Farm Music Festival in Kent, then catch the Eurostar to Paris on Monday for couture week. This time my train isn't until noon, which is much more civilised! I go straight to Chanel HQ for my final fitting before the show tomorrow. I put on the two outfits I'll wear and they see what accessories go with them. Then I have to parade in front of Karl and his team. We have to be in full hair and make-up, which most designers don't do. I've only done couture twice before. They like very tall, very refined beanpole girls, so I'm a bit short (I'm 5ft 10in).
On show day it's a 6am start. Chanel does two shows, one at 10am and another at 12pm. They are nearly always in the Grand Palais. The couture shows have a lot more emphasis on craftsmanship than ready-to-wear, so all the mesdames who work in the atelier are at the fittings and the shows to make sure that the clothes are perfect. I have two looks. The first is a classic Chanel tweed suit and the second is a blouse with a pair of full, sequinned trousers that are incredible - and very heavy.
Edie Campbell modelling Chanel autumn/winter 2012 Photo: CATWALKING.COM
At the weekend I showjump Dolly. She jumps well and I come fourth and third. I'm pleased with the results, given that I haven't ridden for 10 days. On Sunday night I have to do a quick dash to New York for a shoot on Monday.
On Tuesday it's straight back to London to have a dressage lesson on Dolly. If rain doesn't stop play I'll be training with the racehorse George Baker again this week. The weather has made riding this summer difficult, as it gets too muddy and slippery and becomes dangerous. Trying to fit in training for Goodwood is becoming increasingly difficult as I have to go away for work a lot. The fashion industry goes on holiday in August, so everyone is trying to squeeze in their shoots before the end of July. I have a reminder set on my phone for 10am and 5pm each day that says 'DO SOME SQUATS!!!' in a vain effort to get fit. Goodwood is looming and I'm getting nervous.
The Magnolia Cup is at Goodwood, West Sussex, on Thursday ( goodwood.co.uk )
Via: Campbells coup: model Edie Campbell gets ready for her race at Goodwood
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