Tysoe Flower Show and Cheshire Gamefair

We've just had one of the most amusing weekends of the entire season - like an extended comedy of errors! Rebecca, Ronan, Myself, Tinker and Alex set off for Tysoe Flower Show (just 15 miles down the road) on Saturday morning. Although Tim was supposed to come with us, problems with the trains meant he was going to have to cycle to the show ground from the station - not a major issue but just the first thing to go wrong during the course of the two days!

Having arrived at Tysoe we decided to set up the tent as the weather looked a bit changeable, and we didn't want a repeat of the soaking we got there a couple of years ago! We had the horses wandering about whilst we set up which was fine - until the Alpacas arrived. Now, neither Tinker nor Ronan have ever come across Alpacas before, and the Alpacas had never met horses, so all of them spent the next fifteen minutes (and the rest of the day on Tinker's part) snorting, jumping, and eyeing each other up - much to our amusement! The Alpacas were actually very sweet, and quite friendly. They had been shorn and their fleeces were incredibly soft, as were the clothes that had been produced from their yarn. The only problem I had was after I had been stroking them Tinker didn't want anything to do with me until I had washed my hands!

The first show went without incident, other than the fact I ripped a hole in my tights - annoying at £10 per pair! Although I had thought Tinker would be difficult and on his toes (because of the petrifying Alpacas) he was fantastic and did a brilliant show - hooray! However, the second show didn't run quite so smoothly... The first problem came as Rebecca ran along behind Ronan - and realised his tail was still plaited up! This isn't like a show plait, but instead just a loose plait down his entire tail in order to keep his tail clean - and none of us noticed it was still in until it was too late - oops! Rebecca managed to get most of it undone, and then carried on with the strip, which was when the problems with the music stated. The strip to the music is very choreographed but the track kept jumping all over the place, starting again at the beginning, then skipping to the end, and back to the middle. It sounded awful but Rebecca just had to carry on regardless! Thankfully we reached the end of the show without any more mishaps, we'd had enough for one day already!

Tysoe is a lovely little show and they have all sorts of things going on. There were vegetable, flower and baking classes, robot making competitions, a fun dog show, an aunt sally alley, and lots of people taking part in all of them! Katherin (Rebbecca's mum) came to see us and bought Rebecca's cousin Simeon with her. Simeon is David's brother, who came to see us at the Middlesex Show back in June, and also seem quite amused to find out what we were up to! We also met up with our friend Mike from Fuller's who we see at quite a few shows with his pair of beautiful Shires, Griffin and Pride. Tinker and Ronan especially love Mike as he always has a treat or two in his pocket for them! It's Mike's birthday on Friday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mike from all of us at Jive Pony!

Having packed the tent down it was time to set off for Knutsford, and the Cheshire Gamefair. We arrived and set up the tent (for the second time of the day), marked out the arena and settled in for the night. In the morning Alex was up bright and early as he had been invited out on hound exercise with the kennels, so whilst the rest of us were snoozing he was cycling around the countryside for two hours. Much as we all love Alex, it was a peaceful change without him in the morning!

The first show went really well. Until the very end that is. The arena was quite tricky as it was very uneven and on a bit of a slope, but had not been as difficult as we had anticipated. We'd reached the very very end of the show and were merrily waving our ribbon sticks when disaster struck. Tinker had sped up when I pulled out my ribbon stick and was going around the very edge of the arena. I was sitting on his neck with my legs crossed up by his ears when he came across a big dip in the arena, baulked at it and then jumped it! I didn't stand a chance and before I knew it I was in a big heap on the ground watching him canter off without me! I was more surprised than anything as it all happened so quickly, but I jumped up and started dancing to the music! (Probably not the best reaction but hey ho!) Tinker carried on until the other side of the arena where he stopped stock still, until I ran over and jumped back on him, pulled out my mic and closed the show with Becca. Very embarrassing but very very funny!

So, two shows and two pairs of tights down, we went into the second show praying things would go better. But it was not to be! We entered the arena with our music jumping all over the place as it had done at Tysoe (diferent CD, same problem!), and before we'd even gone down one side of the arena there was a loose dog chasing Ronan's heels. Great. So, CD reset and dog caught we carried on, with things going smoothly. Until the roman riding. I started off well, but as Becca approached for the first time things took a comedy turn for the worst. Ronan somehow managed to stand on her heel just as she jumped up, and pulled her boot clean off!! She mounted anyway and we did the opening 'Grease' arms in hysterics - it was hard to concentrate we were laughing so hard! After I had jumped off Becca then had to step over to Tinker with just a stocking clad foot (very slippery) and ram her foot under my roller to keep herself on - no mean feat (pardon the pun) when you're standing over two cantering horses on a bumpy, slopey arena! She did brilliantly though and once I'd got back on she got off, ran across the arena, retrieved her boot and put it back on, before joining me back on the horses - and we were still in time with the music! It was then my turn (again) for a mishap. During the final 'Grease' arms I had a slow motion losing of balance. I could feel myself going but there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it! At the last minute Becca grabbed my arm, just as I grabbed the handles on my roller, managed to right myself, and we finished perfectly! But it was easily the most amusing roman ride we've ever done - and I am giggling away to myself as I'm writing from the memory of it!!

Thankfully the rest of the show went without a hitch - I don't think we could have coped with much more! We then packed down and set off for home. We've not got any shows this weekend, so I'm off to do a Wild West show with the Devil's Horsemen - no rest for the wicked! Our next show is over the bank holiday weekend at Goodrich Park, so I'll tell you all about that when we get back. In the mean time, click here to see the photos from the weekend - and see if you can spot some of the things I've told you about! (And just to mention some of the other things I haven't told you about: Tim nearly crashing Ronan into us during the safety announcement; Ronan's roller slipping just before I had to vault on him; Becca slipping a bit too much when Tim knocked her off Ronan during the volunteer part; Rebecca and I jumping the boys over some cross country jumps in our vaulting tack, and; the daddylonglegs that nearly made me fall off the lorry roof! All in all, a funny weekend!!)

Lots of love

Rosie xx