I arrived at the location where I would remain for the rest of the day at 8.30am and everything was being set up. Food and craft stalls, bouncy castles, rock climbing walls and competition arena's for the horses, dogs and cows were beginning to materialise. The event wasn't open to the general public for another couple of hours yet and the rest of my team with the equipment had not yet arrived. I took this opportunity for a wander around. The event was being held next to the Knapps Loch which is surrounded by acres of land. I had never been here before despite my aunt walking her dogs here frequently and always recommending us to do the same. I understand why she prefers to walk here rather than anywhere else despite the journey; it is peaceful and scenic, especially when the sun creeps out from behind the trees. I love places that are surrounded by lot's of nature and with nothing else to do just yet, I couldn't pass up any opportunities for some photographs.
Unfortunately I didn't get that much time to wander aimlessly because the rest of my team arrived with the equipment promptly. We had a First Aid tent to set up, trolley beds to position, kit to organise and then eventually an event to patrol. Despite providing a First Aid presence, we do get to have a look around all the different stalls and have a nosey at some of the competitions occurring throughout the day. Horse jumping I understand as a competition but cow grooming? There was cheese stalls, bread stalls, confectionery stalls, craft stalls, clothes stalls; absolutely everything you could possibly think of. The confectionery stalls had your typical homemade fudges, tablet and coconut ice but the craft stalls had a huge variety of things, from bookmarks and cards to knitted goods and jewellery. I did pick up two handcrafted items; a hand painted pug card and a wooden bookmark with a little fox motif on. I was expecting the items to be rather expensive as they normally are when they are hand crafted but the card was only £2 and the bookmark £1.50. I also could not resist picking up some flavoured fudges and coconut ice. I certainly underestimated the variety of choice I would have upon my initial glance at the stall but eventually settled on a square of Baileys fudge (for my mum), Vimto fudge (for me), some Vanilla fudge and of course a good couple chunks of Coconut Ice; my favourite. The pricing of the confectionery was rather reasonable as well!
The event was scheduled to finish in the early evening so we had a long day ahead of us. The dog shows and horse shows provided some much needed entertainment and helped the time fly by. The horse jumping was terrifying but extremely entertaining. I appreciate how beautiful horses are but I am also more than aware of how dangerous they can be! I have treated many people with horse related injuries to provide more than enough evidence for me to admire from a distance. People of all ages were competing, there was some really small children on huge horses competing and even beating their adult competitors! Even the dog competition was all ages; 6 year olds with their pets just wanting to have fun and get a ribbon competing against adults taking it all far too seriously. It looked like everybody was having fun though. One of the ice-cream vans even gave my colleagues and I a free ice cream because of how warm it was becoming. It's always lovely when somebody expresses appreciation like that. I watched the Cow grooming competition even though I couldn't understand why it was a thing; it did lead me to finding the cutest baby cow which was asking to be photographed. It was adorable and my brother has a strange obsession with cows so I knew he would love the photo as well.
The sun was definitely shining that whole day, I was convinced I had been sun burn despite having sun cream on but I was lucky this time! My mum even appeared and had a wander around all the stalls and animals and agriculture and animals are most definitely not an interest of hers in the slightest. Dogs are about the only animal she has a real fondness for. She even picked up little wooden ornament of a dog for herself! Compared to other Agricultural Events I have attended, this one was by far the best and most entertaining. There was lot's to do and lot's to see as well. We didn't even have to treat that many people which is always a bonus. I will definitely be helping out at this event again next year if I can.
xxx
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