Kington Show: Never to far from a cow-tastrophe

Kington show is a well-established county show in the beautiful setting of Wales. This year the organizers decided to put on Shetland ponies classes, so we thought we should make the long three-hour journey to help support them and it was a great excuse to get out for a fun day out somewhere different. We were all loaded and left the stables by six o’clock. Even though Cliff is a very careful driver the last bit of our journey was very twisty and I felt a little sorry for our ponies in the back, but we arrived in time to give them a good rest before completing. It’s a shame we couldn’t relax too after a telephone call from home saying our cows had escaped from their field! Knowing this made it very difficult for us to enjoy our usual coffee and chocolate croissants. We really needn’t have worried though as it turned out not to be our cows, but a neighbour’s Dexter herd on the rampage. Never work with children or animals they say.

Somewhat relieved our day continued. Mrs Davenport was our judge and she chose Snelsmore Querl, our bay yearling filly, to be our first winner of the day. Then Snelsmore Oceana, our three year filly, followed with a second win for us. Snelsmore Madonna came next in the mare class but on this occasion could only manage a second place, never the less we were still delighted with her performance.

Our final pony to compete was Snelsmore Nevada in the stallion class. It seemed a very close run thing but he manage a first place and went on to be Miniature Champion. My best memory of the show will always be Cliff and I joining in the grand parade of all the animals entered at the show. Luckily I didn’t see a single Dexter cow to remind me of the morning’s unnecessary panic. Then again Madonna and I were positioned in front of a huge pedigree Hereford bull which kept us both on our toes. From the beginning to the end, today our hearts would be pounding thanks to cows!