Whalton Show and Sheep Race

We woke to rain this morning but thankfully it soon brightened up as we headed over to the Whalton Village Show.

It was going to be a very busy day as not only did we have our alpacas and knitwear there I was also racing my sheep again.  I had high hopes for the sheep as we won three of the four races last year and went  on to win the championship race with Mocha.

Mocha was first out for the Barnacre stable today, and here she is leading the field!

First past the the finishing post was the defending champion Mocha.

Next up was the turn of Mia, my extremely overweight pet lamb from many years ago who thinks she is a short alpaca.  She was the only one of last years team that didn't win her race so I wasn't sure how she would do.  I needn't have worried, she did us proud, another first place.

In the third race I had one of my lambs running, this race was so funny as the sheep didn't want to run.  They kept going the wrong way, going back to the start and generally not doing what they were supposed to which the crowd thought was hilarious.  Eventually with a little encouragement (called a feed bucket!) my little lamb was on the move and and winning, until the last 10 feet that is!  He ended up second.

The final race was easily won by one of the vet Dick Thompson's (Alan my farmer friend's cousin) sheep.  So the championship race was between two of mine and two of Dicks'. 

This race didn't quite go according to plan, both my sheep and Dicks are very friendly and used to being round people and none of them wanted to leave us, or then again it could have been the feed bucket they had spied just over the fence at the start line.

Eventually I managed to get Mia moving and then she spotted a feed bucket heading to the finish line so she set off, excess weight, wonky legs and all and won by a complete lap!!!!!!  Here she is proudly posing after securing Barnacre the winning cup for another 12 months.

Thankfully my parents are still here at the minute so they were able to help out with the alpacas who as always proved super popular.  We also saw a very clever lady Irene who came laden with the best gift ever, more on that tomorrow.