The Show Blog

The good, the bad and the downright ugly from the British equestrian show season
The Equifest Bomb Scare Incident

It's Friday night at Equifest and the evening performance had just finished, rather later than planned. Spectators are filing out from both sides of the indoor arena and Arena UK, but we are talking to the owners of a trade stand right by the automatic doors out into the car park. There is a drunk […]

Read More
The Northern Lights Masters

Let me explain. The Northern Lights Show circuit, I'm reliably informed, is a series of "local" shows in the North of England, culminating in this two-day Northern Lights Masters show at Arena UK. There is an evening performance on the Saturday night, though it is only scheduled to go on until 7.50pm. There is also […]

Read More
Derbyshire County Show

If Derbyshire County Show was described by a cricket player, it would be called Village. It's a very rustic show with no permanent fixtures and an air of "who cares". First things first: it's not a great idea to choose a show venue where access is only available via a single road, which itself has […]

Read More
Stafford County Show 2023

This was my first experience of Stafford County Show, although I have been to the showground at Stafford several times before for other shows, including the Shire Horse Association Championships. On this occasion I was there to support friends competing in equine classes so my review of the show will be very much based on […]

Read More
Bolesworth International Horse Show 2023

The two horse shows organised by the Bolesworth team are usually very well organised, with a strong influence on entertainment away from the arena as well as in it. This year's Bolesworth International Horse Show was no exception, with the unofficial strap-line that it was the biggest one ever. The shopping village now included a […]

Read More
Lincolnshire Show 2023 - Shetland revolt

The first day of Lincolnshire Show 2023 was enjoyable and all seemed to go to plan, but on Thursday we got wind of a farcical situation evolving in one of the showing rings. As you can see from this photo, the plan was for this in-hand ring to split into two at 1pm, with Section […]

Read More