It was wet, my hair had at least three lovely rainwater rinses during the course of the afternoon when sudden sharp showers interrupted the show classes. The morning wasn’t bad at all with some sunshine lulling us into thinking everything would be OK. But by the time we got to the show champion bit it was grim with judge, steward, exhibitors and animals all sopping.
Little Kallista got the ticket with Nimrod and Socrates colour champions and Maia and Sheba reserve champions. Pretty rosettes too apart from the pink ones, we managed to avoid getting one of those.
Judge Jay soldiered on with his oral reasoning a little bit shorter when he was experiencing the full joy of a Somerset downpour. He did remain very cheerful, still up for a joke even when his glasses really should have been fitted with windscreen wipers.
Alice, the cavapoo, had a great day with two girls who adopted her and had her running around like a mad thing all day. We all thought she would be shattered and sleep all evening – wrong – still hyped up and attacking one’s feet when we got home.
The very good thing about the day was the pizza man who has fashioning home made pizzas in a van on the site. They were gorgeous and I ate the lot, very unusual at a show where the food is normally hideous. Getting out of the showground was a little but tricky as Bernard had skidded and was blocking the way all the alpaca people were supposed to get out and all the tractors were busy. In the end we followed Dan Childerley and went for the other entrance which meant driving through some serious mud – no stopping – it was a bit touch and go but we made it on to the hard track.
We couldn’t believe how dry it was on the motorway but when we got home more violent storms hit. We were going to take the animals back to their fields but decided to leave them in the barn overnight. One of the girls had birthed yesterday morning so they kept her company. The cria, a lovely fawn Paris daughter, has really good bone and that elegant, slightly snooty Jaquinto look about her. We were very pleased to be greeted by such a great looking cria and a girl too.