Thursday 1 August 2013

Taming lambs and other fairy tales.....

If you have ever taken part in an agricultural show; showing sheep, cattle, goats, pigs or any other headstrong creature, I take my tweedy cloth cap off to you. Boy, oh boy, oh boy is there a lot of work behind the scenes.

Burwarton Show is a one day show in Shropshire. Its scale is impressive with a footfall of 20,000 and it arguably attracts the best livestock from at least six counties and Wales.

We girded our loins this year and decided to show two of our cade lambs under the pet lamb category.

For the past three weeks we have walked these lambs around our fields..... well, we walked, they bucked and broncoed... sheesh!

Today came the culmination of our hard work... We loaded the girls from the stables at 8:00am, they'd been housed overnight in the stables in an effort to keep their washed fleces clean - it didn't work. They'd managed to lie in their own doings and their fleeces had a yellow glow! Anyhoo, we drove to the showground a mere 30 minutes away, unpacked the girls and waited for our time in the arena. While we waited, the sproglets teased, tweaked, brushed and sprayed in an effort to make our mongrels look like the pedigree lambs surrounding us. Oops!

It would be fair to say that the 10yo was almost beaten by her lamb Coco, who really wasn't in the mood to walk nicely and with searing temperatures of 27° daughter was v. close to throwing the proverbial towel in. But she didn't. The judging of the Pet Lamb category was made slightly more tricky when our judges couldn't be located and the children, ranging in age from 3 to 10, had to stand in the ring for almost 30 minutes in bonkers temperatures, wearing junior doctors' coats.... but on that we shall not dwell.

When the judges were finally located it was wonderful to see our children competent and confident, able to talk about their lambs and handle them, even when their animals began playing up.

Sproglets, we commend you. You came first in our eyes. Daddy and I are very proud and when you said you'd 'NEVER DO THAT AGAIN...' did you mean until next year????

The rules and regulations...

Still waiting....


The judgement





Awaiting the verdict...

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