Oor Wee Show... Again

The day dawned... the weather was hellish, the rain had not relented and I knew that it was destined to be a busy day.

I arrived at the fields at 7 45am, I was greeted with the comment of Welcome to Paschendale, a reference to the hell of the mud of the Somme; and it was just in time, the first of the light horse entries were starting to arrive, I pulled on my shooting boots and my hi viz jacket and headed up the field in the rain, my hat pulled down over my ears it was a cold one. I love this day, I love the excitement of the competitors, the banter with them as they arrive and get ready for their various classes. I love horses, I have been lucky enough to ride over the years although never regularly and never with any formal lesson, perhaps that's why I get to work with the horse boxes and lorries, it wasn't long before the mud claimed its first victim, and the tractor was put to use the lorry chained on and towed to a safe berth on the hill above the show jumping rings. The next lorry to get stuck had lurched quite violently before bogging down and the poor girl driving asked if I would drive it the rest of the way into the field. It seems well known that I will drive anything and have been driving these lorries for years. I climbed aboard and with the aid of the tractor safely parked much to the relief of the driver.

I ended up spending a large part of the day in and out of lorries and horse boxes driving them in and out of the field pensive owners watching as I ferried their precious cargo in or out of the show field, we got them all in and we got them all out!!!

As you can imagine not much time to get the camera out but I did manage to shoot a total of 5 frames!!! This one I did kind of enjoy you can see from the mud sprayed up the trailer how bad the conditions were but everyone had a good day, nobody was injured despite a few spills and all of the horses went home safe and well.

It was hell, but we will be back next year to ensure oor little show continues and is enjoyed by competitors and visitors alike!!