Horses

Despite the storms of last night and the appalling weather forecast for today, this morning actually dawned dry and sunny. So off we went to the Westmorland County Show. And, for the five or so hours we were there it miraculously remained dry. Those who are familiar with the County Show will realise that dry weather does tend to be the exception rather than the norm.
A lot more to see this year than last - another indication of the return to normality, post pandemic. However, the two day format introduced last year remains in place this year to keep visitor numbers manageable and give everyone just a little more space. I do wonder if they will ever revert back to the one day format - it probably makes sense economically as well as practically to spread the event over two days.
At least one hour of the time we were there was spent chatting to people we hadn’t seen for ages - probably since last year’s show in fact!
And we also spent an enjoyable time watching an unusual showjumping event in the main ring. The riders had to jump eight fences and then dismount and jump into a wheelbarrow, which was pushed round an obstacle course of cones, by someone from the various young farmers clubs who were competing. Four seconds were added to the overall time for each fence knocked down or each cone hit. Fastest combined overall time wins. It started reasonably gently, but then got more competitive as riders leapt off their horses at almost full gallop to hurl themselves into the wheelbarrow. The chap in the picture definitely adopted that approach and you can just see his wheelbarrow pusher on the left of the picture, all ready to start running as soon as the next fence had been cleared and the rider had dismounted.
After blagging a free coffee and biscuits from the BMW stand, we made our way back to the bus stop for the free shuttle service back to Kendal. And no sooner had we set off, than the heavens opened to quite a torrential downpour. Didn’t last long, but still couldn’t help feeling smug that we were sat nice and dry on a bus and not caught out in the open at the showground.
It had stopped raining by the time we got back to Kendal but we did have another bout of thunder, lightning and heavy rain at tea time. Forecast is for more of the same tomorrow, but who knows what weather we’ll actually get - could be anything from a blizzard to a drought if the experience of the past few days is anything to go by.