As of yesterday, the Balmoral Show is over for another year. It always flies by! I was there on the first day, Wednesday, and the first class I bumped into was one to decide the Irish Moiled champion.
In the next ring over, Dexter bulls were being judged.
The Irish Moiled gathered and paraded for the judge.
With so many animals of different ages and sizes, I'm sure it was a tough decision to choose the winner. I didn't hear the winner being called, however. "The best of breed Irish Moiled is—" the announcer said, but the end of his sentence was drowned out by the commotion coming from the Dexters.
Within seconds, a pair of Dexter bulls were rampaging through the Irish Moiled group. Everyone managed to get out of their way and no one was hurt, thankfully.
The larger of the bulls had no damage, but the smaller had broken his nose ring into two and was bleeding from his nose a bit. He'd also managed to bend his show stick as he'd made a break for it, almost snapping it in two.
The judging carried on, and I finally found out who was the champion Irish Moiled - this chap.
Some of the Dexter bulls were still a little rowdy.
Some champions.
The Hereford bulls were being judged at the other end of the rings and avoided the commotion all together.
Moving on, the robotic dairy was back.
And then there were sheep. Lots and lots of sheep!
Rachel, who'd narrowly avoided being tramped by a pair of rampaging Dexter bulls, arrived to tend to her Suffolks, Daisy and Diana.
I had made a halter for Rachel and gave it to her. She was the only person in the cattle ring with a pink show stick, so of course she loved the pink! Diana the pet Suffolk modelled her new halter.
Leaving Rachel to her show prep, I met some more sheep.
Outside, the Suffolk ram lambs were being judged.
So many, they didn't all fit in one row in the ring!
More sheep, because you can never have too many:
Not quite sheep, but Alpacas!
There are sheep.
A great display of Valais Blacknose sheep.
In the pig rings it was chaos as usual.
Little rare breed Gloucestershire Old Spot piglets.
A photogenic rooster.
I bumped into the Pony Club games too. Each team walked into the ring meaning business.
There were eleven games to get through, but each one was so fast-paced and there was so much happening at once - it was hard to keep track!
The sack race was the ultimate test of teamwork!
Once again, Balmoral was a really fun day out! Until next year...
I look forward to this post every year :-D
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