Rockingham International Horse Trials 2015

It's the Rockingham International Horse Trials time again! Hooray! 

It has been held in the grounds of Rockingham Castle over the past 3 years and I happily discovered it for the first time last year!

Picnic and waterproofs packed....(see how prepared I am hey - British summer n'all ;-) ), my family arrived in convoy and parked up together in the beautiful rural grounds with large horse-chestnut trees betwixt the cars. 

First stop was the Sheep Show. We learned all kinds of things about the different varieties of sheep and they even did a little dancing for us...! Ok it was just a shuffle...but that's about the extent of my own dancing, so I can't complain!

Did you know that the cost of the wool from the coat of one sheep is just £1.50? I know - not much is it?  I thought it would have been a lot more!

In the photos below, Terry at the end seems to have the right idea about chillaxin and Lenny is the spitting image of Bob Marley don't you think?

We did a little bit of shopping and my horse loving niece was in heaven as there were mostly horse related stalls selling everything from saddles to jodhpurs.  However, there was also outdoor furniture, stockists selling Barbour and Joules clothing and much more.

I particularly liked a wooden bowl with the different shades of grains of wood and the natural swirly patterns....

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We bought some very tasty, locally made game and brandy pate, which you can buy from the Wing Hall Estate farm shop - but it had already been eaten before I could take a photo to show you :-(. 

(Note to self.....  take photos of food as soooooon as they are bought/made due to danger of being scoffed!)

Tummies rumbling, we slowly made our way back to the car catching the end of the Falconry show on the way. 

Think this handsome chap has clocked me - can you see it's size in comparison to the owl on the ground in the distance? Awesome.

Golden Eagle

The last bird to fly was the Peregrine Falcon, but rather than perform, it had other ideas and flew incredibly high into the sky away from the grounds.....until it was a small dot in the distance. 

Hmmm thinking it may take a little while for the keeper to get him to return, we went and had our lunch.

With the sun kindly gracing us with its presence by bursting from the clouds, we laid out the picnic blanket and chairs and dived into the tasty morsels we'd prepared earlier - like my sticky drumsticks below.

It was lovely sitting and relaxing in the sun, however for me walking the cross country course, designed by Captain Mark Phillips no less, is the best part of the day. I dragged everyone out of their comfortable seats and off we went to watch the talented horsemen/women compete.

There were some amazing jumps....and some magnificent horses.

Half way round there was even a dog pit stop! How thoughtful was that?!

Isn't the view from the grounds stunning? You can see why I enjoy coming here so much!

After walking the length of the course -(and getting slightly in the way once or twice) we tiredly plonked ourselves down at the side of the show jumping arena, ice cream in hand (and in my case Pimms).  

It was so exciting, as it was a tough course and a few horses did crash into them (fortunately none was hurt whilst we were watching).

This was the point when my earlier smugness at my packing ability turned to dismay, as I may have packed the waterproofs but I'd not included the suncream (!!) (don't you just love the unpredictability of the English weather?). 

So with sunburnt faces and worn out feet my shattered family headed home, where I quickly knocked up a light fish supper - salmon in a bag!

Yum the perfect ending to a perfect day.