Sunday 7th September 2014 saw us at Rotherham Show in South Yorkshire. Charlie, Adam, Monty, Tinker, Casper and myself had all piled into the lorry and headed up the M1 the day before, with Helen meeting us on site. We'd arrived and set up in good time, and the boys were particularly happy as we'd turned them out in the arena where there was lots of grass. Their paddock at home was practically bare at the time, so they wasted no time in stuffing their faces as much as possible!
The morning of the show we were excited to see we had been joined over night by Dingle Fingle. Dingle is a good friend who I'd not seen for a while, so it was lovely to see him again. We'd not had a show together since Tain Gala the previous summer! Rotherham Show had requested a little added extra, so we had rearranged the shows to include Roman riding in both performances. We'd given the new shows a run through in August at the Poole Town and Country Show, but it was all still a bit new - we were all hoping it would go well! Mainly that we'd remember the new running orders!!
Whilst we were getting everything ready for the show Adam took Monty for a walk around the showground - and between them they committed a massive social faux pas! Not quite as bad as at the recent Dunscore Gala, but not far off... They'd been for a walk around most of the showground and were just coming back up the main drag between all the stalls when Monty decided that was the most appropriate place to have a poo. Now, Monty's poos have to be seen to be believed - they are quite simply enormous. Adam waited for him to finish, whilst being eyeballed by all the stall holders, before dutifully patting his pockets down for the poo bags (you always need two!). Only to realise with mounting horror that he had forgotten to take some with him! Eeek!! After a little while an obliging dog owner handed over a bag, but the offending mountain refused to fit in just one small bag. Adam had to scrape up as much as he could, before they both came back to the lorry with their tails between their legs. Needless to say Adam had to go back out with a second bag and collect the remaining turd - much to his disgust and the stall holders delight! I just saw this 'Off The Leash' cartoon which sums up the situation perfectly!
Whilst all this was going on we had welcomed Helen's parents, Chris and Sue, who had come to watch for the day. It was to be the first time they had seen Helen vault in the show so they were very excited - and Helen was determined not to fall off! In we went and it was soon Helen's turn to take centre stage. She started off well and then it was time for the dreaded shoulderstand on the back - her nemesis move... Up she went... and then down she came! But she somehow managed to squiggle around and stay on! Hooray!! I'm still not quite sure how she managed it, as looking back at the photos she was practically half way off Casper at one point - it was definitely a good save! The Roman riding went through really well as well, despite the fact that the arena was on a bit of a slope - we got plenty of speed up coming down the hill and around the bend! The thing I remember most from the Roman riding is Sue's face as we whizzed past her, it was a mixture of excitement and horror - at least that's what it looked like and was hilarious!
Helen had bought her camera and Adam managed to get loads of photos of the two shows. You can click here to see them, and bonus points if you can spot Dingle in the background who filmed it all!
Following Rotherham Show we had a break of about six weeks, before heading off to the East Anglian Equine Fair over the last weekend in October - I'll tell you all about that next!
Love Rosie x
No comments:
Post a Comment