One word? When seven would do…

After a slightld disappointing Ardingly South of England Show this year (too pricey to get in, too commercial once you were in) we decided to give the Sussex Game and Country Show a go this year. In previous years we have always either been busy this weekend or assumed it will be a poorer relation to the SoES. Being Fathers Day I’d invited my parents to join us so after some card and gift giving at home and some packing up a picnic we collected them on our way and arrived just after 10am.

The Scouts were doing parking marshall duty with rather hilarious effect, really making a meal of the hand gestures and we were quite tempted just to sit in the car and enjoy their theatre but did make our way in. We were greeted with steam engines on one side and gun dog competitions on the other. We enjoyed looking at an organ for a while (and had a quick peek in the back at the workings)

and the different engines and their different uses before turning our attention to the gun dog trials. They had six different pens or ‘scurries’ to test various skills in dogs and people had brought along their dogs to test them. Some were incredibly, impressively good, others were rather amusingly not so good 😆

We joined the main arena and spent some time looking at the falconry birds of prey in their static display. Ady managed to bag a table next to the arena so he sat there with Davies while the rest of us chatted to the woman on the birds stand and found out what all her birds were, how she comes by them (captive breeders) and how they are trained. We joined Ady and Davies on the bench, got some coffees in and installed ourselves there for the next couple of hours to watch the constant entertainment laid on.

First we watched a gathering and display of Sussex Spaniels, a fairly rare and obviously local heritage breed of dogs. None of us (with the exception of Tarly) being particularly dog-people we found the rather over enthusiastic commentary far more entertaining than the actual dogs. Next up was a very interesting demonstration about long nets for catching rabbits for pest control (and eating of course :)) which we really enjoyed. The guy doing it was very funny, full of stories to tell, wisdom to impart and knowledge to share.

Scarlett was getting restless by then so while the others protected the table Mum and I went for a wander with her. The stalls surrounding the arena went farther back than I’d realised so we returned to the others with the intention of exploring further later all together. We declared it lunch time and tucked into our picnic while watching dog training in the arena.

Next came my favourite show of the day, the falconry. They invited anyone wanting a closer look into the arena so Davies, Scarlett and I went in and were mesmerised by the amazing displays of the birds swooping right over our heads, hovering above us and flying way out at top speed. Again the couple doing the display were expert showmen and put on a really entertaining show with lots of facts thrown in so we felt educated as well as entertained :).

I declared it ice-cream o’clock and got a round of 99s in to watch a very impressive display of stallions next. Two incredibly talented horsewomen (sisters) and their beautiful horses doing all sorts of amazing stunts, all introduced by another sister while their 12 year old brother joined in on his motorbike. They had the horses galloping while they dangled off them, lying down to play dead and getting back up again, all with a rider on their back, rearing up, marching and dancing, crossing raised platforms while the rider stood up on the horses back and the brother went under the horse on his motorbike – all very gasp-worthy :).

We watched the last display before the programme repeated itself of a man and his five sheepdogs herding a flock of geese all around. Again they called for audience participation so Davies and Scarlett went into the arena along with lots of other children to create live corales for the geese to be herded into. I found that display probably the most impressive just for the amount of training that had gone into the dogs, the relationship between the dogs and the owner and his own great skill at commanding them all and getting them working together. He had trained all of them to respond to different words for ‘left’ and ‘right’ so he could talk to one dog at a time – they included ‘fish’ and ‘chips’, ‘king’ and ‘queen’, ‘powder’ and ‘rocket’ as well as the more traditional ‘left’, ‘right’ and ‘come by’ so was calling all these various words which just one dog of the five responded to and coordinating them all to work together to herd these geese. Amazing stuff.

Next we went for a wander round the stalls which were a mix of stuff for sale, information, charities and organisations on recruitment drives and activities. We paused at the army surplus stuff, the guns for sale (Davies and I both interested in shooting, Ady can do it anyway and says he’ll speak to Tom about some coaching for Davies and I in air rifles and shotguns 🙂 ) and looked at some knives and other camping / survival stuff.

We paused for a while at the magician on stilts, spent ages talking to the staff manning the information about deer stand and looked at the various skins, skulls, antlers and feet they had on display. They were promoting slowing down when you see the caution deer triangle road signs and showing you the impact on deer, car and people when they collide 🙁 .

We looked at ducks, chickens, geese, rabbits, mice, gerbils and other furry animals for sale and on show and then stopped for the ferret racing. That was lots of fun, four ferrets wearing different coloured neck scarves racing down long tube against each other. Tickets for sale at 10p each to bet on a ferret for winnings of 20p each if your colour won. Davies and Scarlett both chose blue having looked at all four ferrets as they were brought round to the audience and after a tense race (blue was in the lead all the way and his nose was poking out of his tube long before any of the others but then he stopped while still in the tube to eat grass and the rule was the winner had to be all of the way out of the tube. With yellow coming up fast behind blue finally came out to cheers :). Davies and Scarlett’s first taste of gambling and they won! :). I fully expected them to want to place their 20p winnings on the next race but they heeded our advice to walk away winners and we moved on.

Ady paused to chat to someone in the food festival tent (lots of lovely smells and free samples) who knew an ex Portsmouth player (Ady was wearing a Pompey top, not sure why I say that as you all know he only ever wears Pompey tops ;)), then to someone he knew through work and then again to chat to a couple we bumped into we both knew. We then queued with the kids to go on the bungee trampolines which is something they’ve wanted to do every time we’ve seen them anywhere so agreed to them having a go on there. They both LOVED it 🙂

We watched the falconry display for a second time, which had slightly different things happening including an owl flying very low over audience members lying down and was very impressive. A quick walk round the last part of the grounds where a display of vintage caravans and other vehicles was laid on aswell as a rifle range with tuition, but the queues were too huge for that and we finished up with cups of tea and coffee and some cake to watch the sheepdogs display for a second time.

The sun had been in and out all day and I’d lost count of the times I’d taken my fleece on and off but suddenly the sun was really powerful and all of us ended up caught out by it and rather pink cheeked 😳 as we’d not thought about suncream. No lasting effects though, just a few extra freckles each this morning 🙂 .

We watched the last few fundog trials happening as we walked past on the way out and finally left at about 530pm just as things were winding up for the day. A really good day out, we’d definitely go again next year :).

We dropped my parents home, spent some time in the garden, Scarlett and I walked to the shops for some supplies for dinner while Davies and Ady did some X boxing and then Ady had a bath while the kids and I watched some River Cottage before they went to bed.

Ady and I had dinner, tried and failed to watch a film (The Good Night, don’t bother it was terrible, we turned it off!) and watched a River Cottage episode instead.