Anyone been to the Yorkshire show today?

Honey08

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What did you all think?

We always go, but this time found it a real let down! Other than the price, which seems to be getting pretty steep at £19 each, we thought that everything else had gone downhill!

We queued for two hours to get in, despite going later after the rush. It wasn't helped by poor road signs onto the site, which led to over a hundred cars going down a dead end lane instead of onto the site! Some poor cottage owner had them all turning round in his drive! Then we had to queue to get back into the right part, and when finally on the fields, the parking monitiors were trying to park cars on a field so steep that only 4x4s could get up it! Toilet queues were across the roads, with cars driving through them, it was an absolute shambles!

When we did get in, it actually felt a bit boring. All the stalls were the same as ever. All the bins were full, all the quirky displays that are interesting because you don't see them elsewhere, ie, the tree fellers etc, had absolutely nowhere for people to watch, unless you were 6'4" and could see over heads. There were hardly any seats around the food areas. Lots of toilets were out of order. It just seemed a poor do!

Also it didn't feel much like an agricultural show anymore, just a shopping trip for non-country folk.. Hardly anyone seemed to be watching the pigs/goats etc.

We came away feeling like we won't be bothering next year, which is a shame, as I'm Yorks born and bred. We may have a trip to the Highland show instead...
 
we went tuesday night, competed today and going back tomorrow to have a mooch around.

the queues for the loos were atrocious, i nearly hired the hosses stable out! haha

everythings overpriced at shows now, food, entrys, all same attractions (no dancing diggers i notice, hooray! only took best part of 2 decades to find something new!!)
all same stalls, selling same stuff.

but then the equine classes start at the crack of dawn so joe public miss those aswell,

did you see the ridden D's? 60 odd entrys madness! :D
 
I went yesterday and today, yesterday to watch horse classes, today with elderly father to look at tractors and the cattle parade (mainly) :) As always some bits were good and some less so. We had to queue today in traffic (which I think may have been to do with the royal attendance, although I may be wrong). Yesterday I had no trouble parking, or getting there at all.
There do seem to be more people who have no real interest in the show, but that has been the same for years. I suppose they have to attract people who otherwise wouldn't go or it will go the same way as the Royal.
I do wish they could go back to the days when it was members, landowners and NFU members on Tuesday, general public Wednesday and school parties only allowed on Thursdays, but doubt that will ever happen.
I was pretty horrified by the Welsh C's I saw today, the animals there were fatter than the those in the cattle parade :eek:
I did also wonder yesterday at the wisdom of having the heavies in the Ridings Ring, but it must be difficult to co-ordinate it all/
I am told there is a waiting list for trade stands of up to 200, so traders must feel that it is worth their while, The sheep seemed to have a fair few people looking yesterday and the shearing comp was well audienced :D
I think you need to decide what you are going to look at in advance and plan your day as much as you can, to avoid getting caught up in the random crowds. There did seem to be huge queues for the loos today, but that wasn't too bad yesterday.
I will probably go next year, can't remember the last year I didn't go at least one day.
 
We are going tomorrow too! We went Tuesday but were in disabled parking so no problems there but will have to go to the normal ones tomorrow so will see how bad it is. Watch out for the rip off food stalls though, the ones that sell hot pork baguettes, they seem to have a problem with their adding up very often and are then unable to give you the correct change for several attempts. I spent nearly 10 minutes trying to sort it out and heard loads more people being overcharged.
 
Im going tomorrow, wish i hadnt read this thread:( i have to be up at 5am aswell! then again my friends are competing so im more excited about that :p
 
mine was the skinny (in comparison) C.

atleast he could actually move, could have done with some lard on it to hold him back lol
 
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sorry possibly went a little trigger happy lol but i went today lol...... guess you gathered that from pics tho :)

i thought it was the same old same old. i got bored by 1pm and everyone else decided to stay till gone 4pm!!! so by then was major major bored and a tiny bit drunk lol xxx good day in all tho and got some lovely pics :)
 
mine was the skinny (in comparison) C.

atleast he could actually move, could have done with some lard on it to hold him back lol

I must have missed him, perhaps he was behind one of the fat ones when I was looking :D :D
One I watched do its show had a ROLL of fat above its tail, :eek: so sad to see that this is the condition that some people think they have to show at county level :( How the judges can see the horse under the layers of blubber I do not know.
 
I used to go years ago and it was always fab, then i would go with work the last few years but mainly just as hospitality and to wine and dine some of our customers for the 3 days. I went last year for the first time as a spectator and, although i got cut price tickets I thought it was very expensive and, like others said i didn't find it that interesting. I am not a big shopper so am not interested wandering around the stalls. I essentially only go to watch the jumping. I have decided not to bother going this year as I didn't fancy paying just to watch the showjumping - there doesn't seem to be quite as many SJing competitors either.

Oh, and if you want to avoid the big queues to get in you should go to harrogate via the Leeds road (A61) and NOT the wetherby/Harrogate road (A661). It's always a little quieter
 
eeek, I went today and spent a small fortune!! One of the kids was sick just as we arrived and I had to fork out for a complete new outfit for her, fortunately we had some old adult sized 'stable' jumpers in the car so she looked like a little scratter til we got over to the riding wear shops. I then bought myself one of the massagers to share with the horses. I had a trial massage with it on Tuesday and fell in love, it was lovely, so decided that the horses definitely NEED one of those! It had £100 off for the show so was a bargain really!! By the time the girls had all the treats, rides and a new grooming kit each I have spent the best part of £500 on one day. I managed to watch the whole Lorenzo show and am completely in awe of him, what a talented bloke! We watched the M&M lead rein and I wasn't impressed and was gutted we didn't take our boy, he would have completely held his own against all the fat ponies, he is well above most in the class although there were a couple of really nice ones and he isn't fat. I was appalled at some of the outfits worn by the 'mothers' too, especially at that level, they weren't even matchy matchy!
 
I went today and had a really good day! :D

We go on the train and free bus and never have a problem getting to the show ground, we buy our tickets from Morrisons at the discounted rate prior to the show. The toilet queues were long but moved quickly.

The only thing that seemed disappointing was the lack of horsey shops. I usually buy something but this year just nothing that I found worth buying :(:eek: Not like me to not buy anything!! Other than that had a great day out!
 
I went on Tuesday and really enjoyed it, traffic was a bit ridiculous but that was to be expected, wouldn't have been too bad if I hadn't taken a wrong turn at a roundabout as there was no bloody sign for the GYS. Will set off earlier next time.

Toilet queues weren't too bad, by the second show jumping class there was hardly anyone around the main ring to be honest, very quiet when we left at around 7pm.

Enjoyed it but didn't buy any food due to the extortionate prices. My friend paid £5.20 for a jacket potato!!

I mainly go for the show jumping but I really do enjoy going to see the cows etc.
 
Went to GYS years ago when happened to be on holiday in Yorkshire and it was a lovely day out.

However, do find that the trade stands/entertainments are all very much the same regardless of what part of the country you are in and it is a shame that rather like high streets having the same shops the county shows have the same trade stands.

If we have time away from competing I like to go round the sheep, chickens, rabbits etc and hopefully they are a good old fashioned educational area of a show for children to visit.

I do think the public admission prices generally are quite high and it must be an expensive day out for a family.
 
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