Friday 7 August 2009

Thornton le Dale Show


We had a lovely day on Wednesday at the Thornton le Dale Show - and managed the journey there and back without incident! Rebecca, Ronan, Myself, Tinker and Alex set off on Tuesday morning for the 190 mile five hour journey to Yorkshire - we're really putting in the miles this week! Having arrived and set up (with help from the lovely Jack!), we went off to explore the village (and pub!) for the evening. On our return who should we see wondering around in the dark outside the tent but Tinker! It's very rare that we leave the tent and horses by themselves, and Tinker has never escaped before (its usually Ronan's speciality!), but the naughty little monkey had apparently been running amok around the showground refusing to be caught by anyone! Having successfully returned the miscreant to his stable we were then sorting them out for the night only for Tinker to walk straight out of his stable again! He obviously had the taste for freedom and Yorkshire grass - Tinker by name...!


There was loads to see at the show and as our first performance wasn't until 1.30pm we had time to walk around and enjoy everything. We saw goats, sheep, cattle, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, pigeons and pigs. One of the pigs, a British Saddleback was soooo enormous - I've never seen a pig so big, she looked like a beached whale! Another of the pigs was so exhausted by her hectic day she had fallen fast asleep, and was snoring so loudly you could hear her from miles away - I'm sure we heard her before we saw her! And I had to take a video of her...





There was also lots of different horse classes, including: ridden fancy dress; heavy horse with foal at foot (gorgeous shire babies); decorated horse (shires covered with lots of flowers and brasses - they looked amazing); authentic driving (a lovely little butchers cart, and the most gorgeous coloured driving horse - I would have taken him home if I could!). There were also falconry demonstrations, terrier racing, and displays by the Kangaroo Gymnastic team - who were very very bouncy! To see all the photos from the day just click here - there's quite a few!


Although the day had started off rainy by the time our performances came around it was gloriously sunny - and very hot in all our costumes! Both our shows went really well and although the boys were still quite tired they definitely enjoyed themselves. The crowds were brilliant and really got behind us - and we saw some grease arms going alongside us!


We're doing something a bit different tomorrow, taking part in a competition called the H Factor (!). It's for Grandstand Media who organise lots of big shows such as Horse of the Year Show and the British Open. It's our dream to get into the big indoor shows like these - to perform under the lights with a bit of production behind us would be really special - so we're going to be trying our hardest to impress them! Wish us luck and keep you fingers crossed for us! Then on Sunday we're off down to Danson Park for a day of solo shows. We've done this show before and are really looking forwards to catching up with some old friends who we've not seen for a while. So, it's another busy weekend for us, and I'll tell you all about it next week!


Lots of love
Rosie xx

No comments: