There are Two Types of Horses...

Two years ago, I blogged about the South of England Show, a county show held in Ardingly, Sussex, that I have been going to with my parents and sisters as long as I can remember! I went last year, but it seems I didn't blog about it for some reason!
But it's a great day out, and always worth a mention!

This year, the show runs from 9-11th June, and the family's visit has become visits, owing to difficulties with days off, dog responsibilities and other commitments!
As a result, Mum and I went to the show today, with Dad and my youngest sister going tomorrow.

Being a show that has strong agricultural roots, there are of course lots of animals, animal-related displays, and country-related products. You want wellies? They've got wellies. You want a Massey Ferguson combine harvester? Well my friend, it's your lucky day!

Anyway, Mum and I aren't particularly big on tractors and other farm machinery, so we checked out the animals and the shopping! We saw goats, sheep, horses, and the most adorable, sleepy pigs and piglets!

I always look out for the birds of prey stand whilst we're at this show, because birds of prey are awesome. This year, there turned out to be two!
Owls About Town mostly had owls, and one hawk. It turns out a lot of the owls are named after politicians! This is to help people remember that a group of owls is a 'parliament'.
The owl above is named Nigel Farage...
I have to say I like the owl a lot more than the man himself!

Huxley's Birds of Prey were also at the show, with a nice group of hawks and a few owls. I was hoping to see a display but I guess if they were doing them, we went by at the wrong time! Still, it's nice to see them!

Since I had my camera with me, I wanted to test out its ability to photograph fast things. So when we passed the arena and I saw there was some show-jumping going on, I grabbed the opportunity!
Many of my pictures were over-exposed because I don't pay enough attention to the settings, but the multiple-exposure feature is awesome!

Some time later, we encountered an entirely different group of horses. This one is named Elizabeth.
Needless to say, Mum and I rode neither type of horse!

We did, however, ride this! (By 'this', I mean the ferris wheel, which was A New Thing at the show this year!) And what a view we had!

You know that glorious countryside that I keep banging on about in my walking posts? This is what I'm talking about. So much green!

The show was pretty big, and we spent nearly 5 hours there! The picture above doesn't give away how big the show was, as the ferris wheel was at the edge on one side. There were a huge number of stands and marquees to the right of this picture, too!

All in all it was a great day! We tested food (pulled pork chilli con carne? Marvellous!), bought food (garlic & rosemary infused olive oil, yum!) and shopped--I now have a pair of purple wellies! I decided to forgo the combine harvester, though ;)