I also managed to startle the Aussie chap who was demonstrating sheep shearing and whip work by actually knowing that what he was wielding was a stock whip. ("Who was that said "stock whip"?" in tones of incredulity.) Blame that on all the Aussie books I read as a kid - Mary Elwyn Patchett for instance.
However, much the best thing was the chance to get up close and personal with some Suffolk horses (also known as the Suffolk Punch) one of the rarest of domestic horse breeds.
Manes had been traditionally braided
Best of all, though, they had a filly foal with them, one of two born to this particular group this year. This is great news, because Suffolk mares have a bad habit of dropping mainly male foals. I suspect this this was selected for in the days when a Suffolk gelding was one of the finest working horses around. Unfortunately, nowadays, with the breed in such desperate trouble, colt foals are not exactly as welcome as they once were.
Here she is...
Though the foundation stallion of the Suffolk breed was only 15.2hh and the breed looks smaller than it is because it is so low to the ground, the geldings are over 17 hands and, though the filly is only about six months old, she's a big girl.
Indeed, when she was spooked by the wind, she proved quite a handful.
I missed the bit when she stood on her hind legs!
It is really a shame - the French equivalent, the Percheron, is now the heavy hunter cross of choice in the States, and the Belgian equivalent, the Ardennais, is still used across Europe for such tasks as dragging logs out of steep woods, and both are therefore perfectly safe, but the Suffolk just went into this decline.
Edited at 2009-09-02 10:42 am (UTC)
2008 was a spectacularly good year for Suffolk births in the UK - the Society registered 42 pure-bred Suffolk foals born during the year - 19 colts and 23 fillies. As at 26 July 2009 they had registered the birth of 42 foals - 24 colts and 18 fillies.
The important Suffolk Punch Hollesley Bay Colony Stud was under threat when the open prison farm where it was housed was sold off - but it was taken over by the Suffolk Punch Trust (http://www.suffolkpunchtrust.org/index.asp), and is going strong. The ones in the pictures came from Horkesley Park, which is on the Suffolk/Essex border, though there are planning problems with the proposed Heritage Centre (http://www.horkesleypark.co.uk/), which is probably vital to their Suffolk breeding programme.
Edited at 2009-09-02 11:49 am (UTC)
But what beautiful pictures and what a lovely Suffolk horse.
There was a time when we had several superb argricultural shows locally, but they have mainly become discos-with-a-fair-attached.