Witton Castle

 Hey Casper!  Photo by Christine Percival

We spent Saturday at the very beautiful Witton Castle Country Park - and it was the easiest day we have had all season!  We arrived on Friday evening to a wide open field, that was flat and perfect.  Having been told we could set up wherever we liked we did just that, before having some yummy omelettes and settling down for the night.

In the morning we decided that we'd do the two separate shows rather than the one combined show, as it would fit in better with the day, and we went for 11.30am and 1pm display times.  There was no other arena acts, it was literally just us in the arena we had built the evening before!  It's a good job I packed extra fencing stakes, as it meant we had enough to build a perfect sized, round arena.

In the morning we turned the boys out into the arena, and after filling themselves up with as much grass as they could manage they both lay down and went to sleep!  This is becoming a bit of a habit for them as they spent most of the morning the previous week fast asleep at Otley Carnival!  Helen and I managed to set the whole arena up around them, all the posts and bunting, as well as Casper's cones, hoop, fetch toy and catching towel - neither of them batted an eyelid or moved a muscle the whole time we were busying around them, lazy boys!  You can see the photos here.

Before long it was time for Casper's show, and luckily he had managed to rouse himself!  He did a lovely show, and was really calm and steady, an absolute pleasure to vault on - I even managed to throw in a couple of new moves!  It was a welcome change from the last couple of weeks that's for sure!  We were really lucky with the weather as well, as even though it kept threatening to pour with rain it never actually did (until we were packing away that is!), and it was actually quite sunny for a lot of the time.  Tinker's show went really well as well, and I did my new moves yet again.  I was especially please with him at the very end of the show, as he came out of the arena and did a whole lap before stopping of his own accord by the arena gate - very good as when he's bridleless I have no way of making him do this if he doesn't want to!

Helen had driven up separately in her car, as she had to make a quick getaway in the afternoon.  It was probably the quickest exit ever, as even having packed all the stables and the tent she managed to get away for 2pm!  Lily and I finished up and we left at 3pm, meaning we were home by 4.30pm which is very unusual but extremely welcome!

It's going to be a different story this weekend as we're at Tain Gala, up in the Highlands of Scotland.  It's 384 miles one way, so is going to be a long drive!  I'll let you know how we get on next week.

Love Rosie x

Otley Carnival

Last Friday we set off once again for Otley, this time to perform at Otley Carnival.  We knew the way, as the carnival takes place on the same field as Otley Show, which we performed at back in May.  We didn't even need the sat nav to get us there!  Having pulled on to the field the space we were allocated meant the only sensible way to park the lorry was to parallel park it - which I did!  It was really funny, but I got it in the space straight away luckily, and somebody even said they couldn't have done the manoeuvre in their car!

The boys were once again in their element munching on the lush grass, and having settled them down for the night we got an early night ourselves - all in bed by 9.30pm!  We had a bit of a lie in as well, as we weren't due to perform until 3.15pm.  We spent the morning getting everything ready slowly, and I spent quite a bit of time running Casper through all his tricks, as I really didn't want a repeat performance from him as at Rawdon Fun Day.  The carnival was being built up around us, and very soon there were lots of stalls and marquees.  It didn't affect the boys one bit though, and they both lay down for ages for a good long morning snooze!  See the photos of the lazy beasts here.

Before long the sun went in and the heavens opened, which unfortunately coincided with the parade setting off from the town.  Luckily though it seemed to only be a heavy shower, and the sun soon came back out.  We were hoping the weather would stay nice for our performance, as we had had enough of Otley rain at the show in May!

Before long the parade started to arrive on the show field - and kept on coming!  There were many different floats, all of which had had lots of effort put into them and looked amazing.  The new carnival queen was crowned in a coronation ceremony, and the field was soon packed.  Then it was our turn!  The was a large crowd all around the arena, and Tinker was brilliant.  He didn't put a foot wrong throughout the whole display, which is more than can be said for Casper!  I don't know what's got into him recently, but he decided to play his charging off on his own accord game a couple of times - thankfully not as badly as at Rawdon Fun Day, but not far off!  He did eventually settle and I did manage to do nearly all of my freestyle on him, even going upside down a couple of times!!  The Roman riding went well despite a few bucks from that naughty Casper, luckily Tinker was the ultimate professional and just ignored him!

Following the show we had a very busy little shop, selling lots of posters and keyrings - I think most of Otley must have pictures of us somewhere on their walls by now (at least the eight year old girls anyway!).  Following our display the whole field was taken down in record time.  I have literally never seen a field emptied of absolutely everything so quickly - one of the organisers told me it was thirty years of practise.  Either way I was very impressed!

Casper has another chance to redeem himself tomorrow, as we're off to Witton Castle near Bishop Aukland to perform the double act again.  I've been working him all week so he really has no excuses this time!  I'll let you know how we get on!

Love Rosie x

Rawdon Fun Day

Photos by John Davies

 Photo by Helen Gilbertson

I can hardly believe that a whole year has gone past since we were last at Rawdon Fun Day, but it must have done because last Saturday we were back there!  Thankfully the weather was far kinder than in 2012, and as a result we managed to drive the lorry onto the field and straight into position without being towed.  It was just Helen and myself, and Tinker and Casper, who arrived on Friday evening and set up camp for the night, as we were due to have yet another new girl join us in the morning.  We spent the evening cleaning tack (Helen) and cooking (me) and had a very peaceful time.  The boys were out in the arena busying themselves with eating as much as possible once again - this seems to be their default setting at shows now!

In the morning we were joined by Emma, who had come to help us out for the day.  Emma works at Hope Pastures in Leeds, a rescue and rehabilitation centre for horses, ponies and donkeys.  Helen knows Hope Pastures through the work she does at Hannah Dawson Equine, and it's lucky she does as we were stuck for someone to help until Emma came along!

Having given Emma a crash course in what she needed to do throughout the shows, it was soon time for our first display.  In Casper and I went, and off we went!  I don't know what was up with him, but we were flying!  The arena was on quite a slope, and he was definitely using that as an excuse.  I managed everything fine though thank goodness!  All went well again until the dance, when Casper did something he has never done before (and hopefully will never do again!).  In the middle of the dance he just charged off!  He was doing laps of the circle and showing no interest in stopping whatsoever.  Poor Helen, she didn't know what to say, and I just kept saying to her 'keep talking!'.  I finally got the beast back under control, but I have no idea why he did it, just attention seeking I think!  Then it was time for the games section, and once we were out of the circle Casper would do one of the toys/games with me and then charge off again.  He kept running to different points in the arena and sticking his head over as if he was saying hello to people.  It got quite embarrassing after a while!  The saying 'Never work with children or animals' sprang to mind - and it seems as if I have a perpetually childish animal!  To be fair to him, he did do everything I asked of him, he just did a few laps of honour in between!  Once we got back in the circle he did the rest of the show very well, so I can't grumble too much.  I was struggling to vault on him a bit on the slope, but looking back over the video you can hardly tell.  What was really funny afterwards was how many people asked me if Casper was actually being naughty through the show or if he was supposed to run around on his own.  The little monkey was definitely being naughty!!

When Casper behaves like that, it makes me eternally grateful to Tinker.  He did a wonderful show, and made it all feel easy again!  Even the slope didn't matter on Tink, he really is lovely to vault on.  I know him so well I can just concentrate on the vaulting and not worry about him in the slightest - even when he isn't wearing his bridle and side-reins.  I cannot wait until Casper is at the same stage!  I think it may be a good few years though...

We had a lovely day, and I'm so pleased the weather was so good.  There was hundreds of people there, all through the day, and lots for them to see and do.  Benji was there with the Interesting and Unusual Team, and did two really good shows.  There was demonstrations by the fire brigade about cutting cars at accidents, which sounds a bit morbid but was fascinating.  There was also a visit from the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, who are one of the charities the fun day supports, although this year they didn't come right in the middle of Tinker's dance like last  year!  Unfortunately they couldn't stay very long, as they had a call to help a biker who had been injured in an accident.  This just highlighted what a fantastic service they offer, and how vital it is that they are well supported.  The fun day did a brilliant job in this respect, as the day raised made over £15,000 in profit to divide between their charities - their best result yet and long may it continue!  You can see some photos from the day here, and I'll be adding some more soon hopefully!

We're off back to Otley this weekend, where we will be performing at Otley Carnival on Saturday.  We'll be doing our two horse show as we did at Ilkley Carnival, and I'm hoping Tinker behaves better than he did there!  Entry to the carnival is free, so we'll see you there!  I'll let you know how we get on.

Love Rosie x

Castle Howard

 Photo credit: Helen Gilbertson

  Photo credit: Sally Anne

What a beautiful long weekend we had at Castle Howard!  Everything from the setting to the weather was perfect.  I've never been to Castle Howard before, despite sharing a name with it, so it was lovely to spend three days there.

We set off on Friday afternoon with yet another new girl in tow, Lily this time.  Luckily everybody we've had so far has fitted into the clothing and costumes, and Lily was no exception.  After a much longer than necessary journey (navigation is not one of Helen's strong points!) we arrived and got set up.  There was nobody else on site whatsoever, so it was a very peaceful evening.  Tinker and Casper once again enjoyed being turned out on proper grass, and spent the majority of the evening stuffing their faces!

Everything went really well on Saturday, with both the boys doing lovely shows.  Benji was there with the Interesting and Unusual Team so it was good to see his displays.  It was absolutely baking hot and all three of us looked quite pink by the end of the day!  Once again we were all alone in the evening, and the boys (and me!) enjoyed snoozing in the evening sun in the arena.  

  Photo credit: Helen Gilbertson

Sunday was another beautiful day, and this time we had Ben with the Eagle and Vulture Team as company.  He arrived quite early and we were all still in bed!  I was awake though, and realised it was Ben as Tinker whinnied good morning at him.  Tinker is very particular with who he whinnies at (he has to know them very well), so I knew it had to be Ben!  Casper did his best show yet that morning, which was great as there were lots of people we knew watching us.  I can't say the same for Tinker, who was quite naughty in one section of his show!  It was during the choreography vaulting, and he is supposed to just be walking.  Every time I got into a new move he charged off into canter!  It took me about three attempts to get him to stay in walk - normally it's the other way around!  Sunday evening was beautiful again, with a really large full moon seemingly hanging in the sky.  Helen and I made the most of the lorry and had a lovely hot shower each, there was even enough hot water to wash our hair - what a novelty!  In all my nine years of performing at shows I have never once had a shower in a lorry.  It seems like such a small thing but it felt like a real luxury. 

We had been told it was going to rain on the Monday, and although it was slightly cooler and a bit windier there wasn't a drop of rain all day.  I had a slight costume malfunction during Casper's show, although nothing too embarrassing thankfully.  It was about three quarters of the way through the show when the zip of my lovely spotty dress burst open!  Helen and I had only been saying that morning that the zip felt quite weak (no rude jokes about my weight here please - the dress isn't at all tight!) and that it would probably pop one day - little did we know that one day would be that day!  I do wear a leotard underneath, so it wasn't too revealing, but still far from ideal.  Luckily my red cardigan was close to hand as I'd just taken it off for the catch during Casper's dance, so I was able to tie that round my waist and keep everything together - phew!  I finished the rest of the show in this fashion, and thankfully everything stayed together.  Definitely one of the more worrying moments I've had in a show for a while though!

Tinker's afternoon show was one of the best he's done in a long time.  His dance was foot perfect and he really did enjoy himself all the way through.  It was an absolute pleasure to work with him, and rounded the weekend off brilliantly.  We all had such a lovely time and it flew by - we couldn't believe it when it was time to pack up and go home already!  There's quite a few photos from the weekend, which you can see by clicking here.  We're off to Rawdon Fun Day next, and hoping for better weather there than we had last year!  I'll let you know how we get on.

Love Rosie x

Otley Show

 Photo credit: Carol Stevens at Raycrosse Photography

 

 Photos by Helen Gilbertson

We had a different team for Otley Show, as Jess was busy working and couldn't make it, so Helen's sister Megan came along to help out - a brace of Gilbertson's!  Having made it safely to the show ground we put the horses out in the arena and started setting up.  It took us a ridiculous amount of time to put the stables together, and we just couldn't work out why.  Helen finally realised that we'd put the doors on the wrong way round - that'll do it!  The ground was also anything but flat, we used all our chocks and could have done with a few more!

We finally managed it and bought the boys in from the arena.  As per last week at Ilkley Carnival they were so glad to see some grass (we hardly have any at home at the moment) that they just stuffed themselves as much as they could!  They weren't the only ones who enjoyed their food, as Helen made some delicious thick half moon omelettes for supper - helped by the fact that the lorry was on a slight slant!

There was no chance for a lie in in the morning, as our first show with Casper was at 10.30am and it takes about two hours to get ready for each show.  This may seem a long time but it soon goes!  We have to clean the horse, do our hair and make up, warm up, tack up, warm the horse up and get into costume, as well as making sure the music has been tested, the props are ready and the shop is set up - two hours goes in a flash!

The showing classes started at 8am, so even though I was up at 7.30am there were lots of horses knocking about.  Casper found the whole thing very exciting, and had been whinnying his head off since about 6am - and lots of horses and ponies had been answering him!  One of the earliest classes was for Shetland Ponies, and I've never heard such high pitched whinnies.  They were all squeaking away and Casper was doing his best to imitate them!  He was absolutely wired and I knew he'd take a lot of settling down before his show, and I wasn't wrong.  After twenty minutes of flat out lunging he was still charging around shouting his head off - great.  There was nothing more I could do though so just had to hope he'd pull himself together.

It was pouring with rain and the last thing I wanted to do was take my coat off (playsuits are not very warm or waterproof!), but the music came on so off it came and in we went!  Casper surprised me because as soon as we went in he was absolutely perfect.  Shame I can't say the same for my microphone, which refused to work right from the word go.  Poor Helen ended up having to do all the commentary, apart from a couple of sections where I grabbed the head mic from her (and probably a chunk or two of her hair at the same time - oops!) and talked myself.  There is a reason why we ask for two hand held radio mics, and although we managed with one head mic between us it was far from ideal!  Despite the pouring rain we had a decent audience, and everybody clapped and cheered.  Casper's games seemed to go down particularly well, and the ever popular hoop jump definitely got the biggest applause of the show.  The only slight mistake Casper made wasn't really his fault.  I was doing the explanation freestyle in walk and Helen was commentating away.  Part of one of her lines is '...and in the canter...', Casper heard the word 'canter' and off he went!  He's very very good on his voice commands, and he was obviously listening a bit too closely!  Other than that I really couldn't fault him.  By the end of the show all of us were completely drenched, and more than happy to head back to the lorry to try and dry out.

Luckily the rain stopped in time for Tinker's show - I didn't even get wet warming him up!  He was as good as gold all through his show, and we had two working mics, so it couldn't have gone better.  Following the shows we had a walk about all the marquees, and there was lots to see.  In the produce tent there were all kinds of competitive classes on display, my particular favourites being 'Layered jelly in a pint glass', 'A pizza face' and 'A vegetable animal'.  Helen took lots of photos, which you can see alongside ones of the show by clicking here.  We also went to see the countryside area, where Ben had his Eagle and Vulture team on display.  They'd had a good day too, and as their display had been in the afternoon had managed to escape the rain.  Les Dixon was there with his Mountgrace Gundogs, as well as the Sheep Road Show.  Unfortunately we didn't have much time for stopping and chatting as we had to get packed down before it started raining again.  The tent had dried out during the afternoon and I wanted it to stay that way!

When it was time to go we had to be towed off, luckily there was lots of very helpful tractor men about and we were gone in no time.  Despite the weather we had a really lovely day, and the crowds were brilliant.  I'm amazed so many braved the weather in the morning, but by the afternoon they really were out in force.  We're back at the same site in a few weeks for Otley Carnival - hopefully the weather will be glorious and the crowds even bigger!

We've a busy weekend coming up as we're at Castle Howard for a three day show over the Bank Holiday.  We're doing our two shows a day and as it's one of our most local events there's quite a few people coming to see us.  I'll let you know how we get on!

Love Rosie x

Ilkley Carnival

All three photos by Karen Mitchell at The Peppermint Gallery

Sunday afternoon and having given both the horses a deep clean with the hot shower and LOTS of shampoo and conditioner Helen, myself, Tinker and Casper set off for Ilkley, where we were due to perform at their carnival on the Bank Holiday Monday.  Jess was working so would be joining us there in the morning.  On arrival we squeezed the lorry through the gateway, and promptly put our new lorry chocks to use - no mountaineering at this show (unlike last week)!  The arena was once again a perfect size for us, and dead flat so just ideal.  There was to be a five-a-side football tournament in the morning, and there were two pitches marked out in the arena which we soon decorated with our own arena markings - eight little yellow crosses, hopefully not too confusing!

The horses spent most of Sunday evening in the arena munching their way through the grass.  We've very little grass at home at the moment, so they really went to town!  Andrew, the organiser, even asked if they ever did anything else, and would they actually be doing anything in the show or just eating!

We were going to be performing our two horse show, and although we did this a couple of times last year (at a private wedding and Abinger Medieval Fair) I've changed everything around so it was all new to us.  I'd also put in a totally new section; games with Casper. We've been practising everything lots, so I was really hoping it would all go to plan.  We had a forty-five minute slot in the arena, which is quite a long time to fill! Jess's boyfriend Dan had agreed to film the show, so any mistakes would be caught forever.  No pressure then!!

The day itself was absolutely beautiful - easily the hottest day of the year so far.  Andrew was hoping for a good turn out, and they certainly got it.  As the parade started to arrive we were astounded by the number of people involved.  And they just kept on coming.  The field was soon absolutely rammed, with people everywhere.  Even warming up we had a big audience!  The horses felt quite lethargic though, and I was concerned they would take quite a lot of encouragement to get going in the arena.  However, that turned out to be something I definitely needn't have worried about!

I opened the show with Tinker, and he was brilliant for his first section.  Having finished the skipping it was time to introduce Casper to the show, ready for Roman riding.  I've been practising this lots and had a really nice little routine worked out on them.  Unfortunately however, Tinker decided it was time to justify our name and galloped around for the entire duration, dragging poor Casper along with him!  Needless to say it was as much as I could do to stay on, stand up and stick one arm out occassionally.  I was really annoyed with Tinker, as it was totally unnecessary and I thought the Roman riding had looked rubbish as a result.  But having looked back at the filming it actually looks quite impressive because we're going so fast!

The downside of our speedy Roman riding was that Casper was then far too wound up to concentrate properly on his games, and although he did manage most of them he could definitely have done better!  He was then also fast again for the vaulting which meant my freestyle had some pretty scary moments, so maybe my optimism last week that he was finally settling down was a bit premature.  I do blame Tink for winding him up though, so hopefully that won't happen again!  

Following Casper's part we had Tinker back again, and it was as if butter wouldn't melt - he was absolutely perfect! It was as if he'd just wanted to sabotage Casper to make himself seem like the golden boy!  We finished the show with the bridleless vaulting, which always goes down really well, especially when we do a lap of the arena at the end.  I have no control over Tink at this point though, so we tend to go wherever he wants!  Luckily he always stops when I jump off and run alongside him - maybe I should have tried this approach during the Roman riding...

After the show we slowly packed up and mooched home.  We had a really lovely day and the organisers seemed over the moon with how the day had gone; apparently it was the biggest carnival parade and largest attendance ever!  I hope we can go back another year!  There's lots of photos of the carnival all over the internet, and it's had fantastic publicity.  For a few photos of our day please click here.

We've had a weekend off (Helen and I took Casper and Gertrude, Helen's horse, on the Rievaulx Ride on Sunday which was lovely), but we're back at it this weekend with Otley Show on Saturday.  We're back to doing the two shows, so hopefully both the boys will behave themselves - I'll let you know how we get on!

Love Rosie x

Oakedge Park Game and Country Fair

 Photo Credit: Roy Westwood

Our 2013 season has started!  I can barely believe it, it's come around so quickly.  Friday afternoon we set off for Staffordshire, and Oakedge Park Game and Country Fair.  Unfortunately our sat nav (affectionately known as Wow Cow) decided that she couldn't find any signal whatsoever throughout the journey.  Luckily I had printed off a route planner as well, so along with the atlas we found our way pretty easily and arrived on site after about four hours.  The best part about the journey was that with the lorry's new cctv we were able to watch the horses - Casper Cam!

Having arrived we were directed to an area which was 'slightly sloping' - by about forty degrees!  We set everything up and spent a pleasant evening mountaineering around the lorry.  During the night the slope meant Jess kept nearly ending up in the cab, Helen kept nearly ending up on Jess, and I spent most of the night squashed up against the wall!

I the morning we took Casper down for a rehearsal in the arena (he's always better for a bit of practice), and he was foot perfect.  This makes me very nervous!  I needn't have been though, as he was absolutely brilliant in his show.  He got ever so slightly distracted by the pony ride ponies during his dance, but other than that I couldn't fault him.  He didn't seem too bothered about where Tinker was either, which was a far cry from our first show of the season last year!  After the dance came the bit I had been looking forward to - the hoop jump!  Those of you who follow us on facebook and/or twitter may have seen some of the videos of Casper learning this particular trick, and it was finally time to see if he'd do it in front of an audience.  He did - brilliantly!  He flew through it twice, so I really was very happy with him.

In the afternoon it was Tinker's turn, and he was brilliant as usual.  The bit I was most worried about with him was the bridleless vaulting, and where he would go when Helen opened the circle at the very end.  During practice the previous week at home he ran round the circle once as planned, then made a beeline for the open field gate and was headed straight towards the bird field.  Luckily he always stops whenever I get off, so I jumped off (and grabbed his head just to make sure!) and he did stop.  Helen was left in the field and apparently all she could hear was me saying 'No, No, NOOO!!'  Thankfully in the show he was very good and just went around the edge of the arena.  As he approached the rope I jumped off and he stopped straight away - what a perfect boy!

During the final section of the show I spotted Richard from The Sheep Show, who I've not seen since last year.  One of my favourite parts about doing the shows is meeting up with old friends and making new ones.  It was lovely too see Richard, and even better as he whisked us all out for an Indian meal that evening!  We'd fed him at Brocklesby Country Fair last summer, but this repayment was definitely in our favour!  Working with Richard was Jason, who was doing The Dog and Duck Show, and we all had a lovely evening with some very funny moments! 

Sunday soon came round and it was time to do it all over again.  Both the shows went through really well again, with the horses behaving brilliantly.  I don't want to speak too soon and say it seems like Casper has finally got the idea, but.....!  Tinker was very good as usual, although for some reason the sponge slipped out from under his roller during the final freestyle, which made the last couple of moves a bit dicey.  Good job it was right at the end of the show!

After the shows we wandered around to see what was about, and took ice creams down for Richard and Jason.  It was a lovely little show, with quite a bit there for its first year, and I'm sure it will grow and grow over the next few years - hopefully we'll be back as well!

Having packed up it was time to truck on home.  Wow Cow was still being temperamental, so we were trying to read the route planner in reverse - we only went around a couple of roundabouts a few times...

We've got something different for next weekend.  We'll be at Ilkley Carnival on Bank Holiday Monday, and will be performing our  forty-five minute two horse show.  We last did this at Abinger Medieval Fair back in June last year, but I've changed everything around quite a bit, so once again Helen and I have new scripts to learn!  If you're anywhere nearby do come and see us - we always love to see as many people as possible!  I'll let you know how we get on, but in the meantime you can see some photos from Oakedge Park here (courtesy of the lovely Roy Westwood who has sent them through - thank you!).

Love Rosie x