I followed these two horses up West St Helen Street, along Lombard Street, up East St Helen Street (contra flow like a lot of push bikes seem to do), and then down Bridge Street to the show ground on Rye Farm. Most horses came from further afield and needed transport but it is good to see local horses riding through town.
The annual Abingdon Horse Show went on throughout the day. There was a cool start to the day, when I looked in, but by afternoon it was getting quite hot. A loudspeaker commentates on the jumping which usually seems to end in 4 faults, but from time to time they will announce that a xxxxxxx coloured horse next to a van with registration number xxxx xxx is acting a little agitated. Can the owner please return and tend to it!
The owners do devote such a lot of attention to their animals and quite rightly. They are wonderful animals. I’m just glad to see them all come to visit Abingdon once a year.
I like to think I am pretty clued in about the town. I take the Herald, am addicted to this blog, watch notice boards, actually read Town Crier etc. But I must admit this event totally passed me by. Was there much publicity for it? I would have liked to have taken my kids to see it.
(Ah. I see it WAS on the abingdondiary.co.uk I should have looked there, obviously.)
I agree – this must be one of the least publicised events in town – it is the same every year. However I suspect that it is widely publicised in the horse/pony world and maybe the organisers are happy that they get enough people coming along via that route. Seems a shame though – as you say there are probably a lot of children around who would like to see it and might be inspired to take up an activity they wouldn’t otherwise have thought of.