Shiretastic

Bloody hell its parky… goodbye T-shirts, hello gloves and woolly hats…

This weekend was great. We went to the Shire Horse Spring Show on Saturday (at the East of England showground). The drive was largely motorway - the M11 – now there’s a boring road if ever there was one. This is why the missus and I prefer, if we can, to take A roads. Least you get a bit of variety. But a long, dull road running through a flat county does not stir you to poetry. Anyway, we got there and very excited we were too… alright, I was very excited. In short the Show was made up of; 200 stalls, a vintage fair ground, craft fair, food hall, rare breeds, vintage tractors, dog agility competition, farriery competition, Shire Horse competitions and parades and the opportunity to see the horses at rest in the stables, where if they so desired they could be out of reach of well meaning hands, do a big poo and nibble on some hay.

Within a ridiculously short time the wallet was getting battered. In the end, we bought: two folding chairs, some organic meat, some onion marmalade, elderflower and apple wine (for my partner’s gran) waterproof trousers, a high visibility vest, a very large hand carved wooden sculpture for the garden (which had to be strapped in to the car using the seat belt), two smaller wooden carvings, a selection of hand decorated cards, a new belt, a metal sculpture of a pig (for the kitchen), a dog bed, a selection of dog treats and toys and a rather tacky but a rather glorious tea towel resplendent with a picture of a Shire Horse. I’m sure there were some other odds and sods, but I think I’ve been fairly comprehensive…
My partner was just glad we got out of there without buying any hens. (They were very cute and now we get our milk delivered, I thought it would be fun to get our eggs delivered – in a manner of speaking – as well.)

The dog agility was much more fun than you see on TV. The dogs did make mistakes (which just added to the fun and drama) but you could really tell how much the dogs adored doing it. We’re seriously considering doing something like that with Mr. Pluto, that should wear the little bugger out…

The stars of the show without question were the Shire’s. Such magnificent animals! And so beautiful and gentle. They are one of my favourite animals and if I could come back as any animal it would either be a Shire Horse, an orang-utan or Pluto (to find out why he thinks it’s such a good idea to keep eating our ear plugs).
I went to stroke one of the horses that was at rest and he seemed to take to me – once I persuaded him not to eat my sunglasses. He leant his head (surprisingly heavy) against mine and I stroked his neck. We stayed like that for ages until he tried to lean all of himself against me, at which point I had to take a step back. It was very special though and I am determined that when we get our small holding, there will be room for a Shire (or two).

The judging of the Shires was a little incomprehensible. I think you really have to be in that world to know what’s going on.

It was a fabulous day out though, and my mum had a great time too. I think even if you’re not into rural life and animals, you would have found something to keep you entertained.

Sunday it was my partners turn to do mother’s day things, and while she was away in Brighton I went to Halfords and spent even more money!

(Can't upload any pictures at the moment for some reason, will try again later.)