Showtime again

 Last weekend was one of the favourites in our Calendar. The annual Heckington Agricultural Show, now in its 144th year, is a great place to mix business with pleasure. It's one of the delights we only discovered when the Curly Coats came into our lives and this year was our 4th and, if anything, it was the best yet. Last year saw record attendance of 25,000; the numbers haven't all been compiled yet, but I'm certain they will be well up on that.

In previous years we have taken Ginger's offspring but as all her female 'Deserts' are out with custodians we took our burgeoning filmstars (Well? BBC in Spring, ITV in Summer - maybe MGM in Autumn?) We polished and primped and permed them for their 2-day sojourn. Hard work ! But well worth it for all the attention and admiration they attracted! They loved playing to the Gallery but it did wear them out. We were a little worried they might be upset by the fireworks and band playing well into the night but  they settled down and went to sleep straight after dinner- Zonked!

 It wasn't just the Curly Coats who were tired after the show. Gunner's been coming with us every year and takes his Guard duties very seriously. Being such a handsome hound he attracts almost as much attention as the pigs, praised and petted by children and adults alike. It's testimony to his laid back nature that he puts up with it all. Even when we put him behind our chairs for a bit of a rest - though he did sleep some of the time - he mostly watched everything going on around him. He made up for it when we got home: Apart from waking up for his dinner and having a brief run before bed, he was out for the count.

 We're always located in the Heritage Breeds tent alongside some magnificent Lincoln Red Cattle and these rather amazing Lincoln Longwool sheep - it being THE show for this breed. The county's wealth was built on their fleece and it's easy to see why from these prime examples. The sheep in the foreground would have been shorn last March and the one in the background in March the previous year. It was seriously hot over the weekend which speaks much for the animals' constitution. Fortunately for them, one of the main features of the show is the Shearing at the end of Sunday afternoon. Not surprisingly they wait patiently in line for their turn to feel fresh air on their skins. There is a considerable prize, not to mention honour, for the heaviest fleece!

 Another of this County's heritage breeds is the Shire Horse. Heckington features the usual showing classes but there are also opportunities to see the horses being harnessed up for work - intrepid members of the crowd can volunteer to help and try their hand at driving them!. The Handler providing the demonstration on Saturday explained that his Prize ploughing mare had particularly small feet - a sought after trait, not only because the cost of shoes was lower, but because she did not tread down the walls of the furrows as she walked between them! The ploughing matches are a great draw as well, particularly since they include some of the early machines which gradually replaced the horses.

Whether or not these provided a better finished article I wouldn't know but they did underline in Bold the majesty and grace of their four-legged forebears. The rapport between man and beast - as the handler explained "We have only our voices and our hands on the reins to tell them what to do" - lent a certain romance to an otherwise toilsome task.  Working with creatures like those must have been like Showtime every day.......