Maesfen
Extremely Old Nag!
Well, what can I say? If you're planning on going, I wouldn't even dream of it if you only have a car, even four wheel drives were getting towed out (very red faces from a brand new Discovery among others!)
We had a great trip down through the floods (it really brought home how badly some people/places have been hit locally) to just before Newbridge on Wye when we came to a grinding halt. Staggered along at an inch a minute; it took us from 10.30 am to 2.15PM to do SIX MILES to the showground and parked! Traffic had backed up ten miles behind us!
As we were in a coach we couldn't just turn around but we were tempted!) The problem had started due to vehicles having to be towed onto the ground and getting stuck. The mud on the caravan and car parks wouldn't be out of place at Glastonbury, in fact they haven't been able to have the metal grating racks from there which would have been a big help. I would not like to be camping there, that's for sure.
The showground itself seems to be holding up, the rings weren't too bad but I wouldn't like to be running on it!. There's lots of bark down in front of tradestands which is getting pretty soggy, thankfully, all the walkways are tarmaced which helps a lot but wellies are definitely the footwear of the day.
There is talk that they will hold tomorrow but the rest of the week are in doubt as they give horrendous weather for Wednesday; whether that's right or not can only wait and see; feel very sorry for any competitors who must be dithering whether it's worth it or not.
On the good side, I watched the Sport Horse classes and was chuffed to find I picked both winners and seconds while talking to a nice lady from Northern Ireland. The winner of the very strong 2 & 3 year old class was an outstanding filly by the recently deceased Abraham, very hard to fault her, beautifully turned out and she was Champion too; very well deserved IMHO. It was also very easy to move around as obviously crowds are well down.
As a spectator, if you have to travel a long way to the showground, I honestly would think very carefully whether it's worth it or not just for the hassle of the massive queues of today; hopefully, they will have ironed out the main problems as they were using buses to bring people in from outlying car parks across the road; if you're only 20 mile away then of course I'd go like a shot; it's such a great show and to see the Welsh Cobs come into the ring, that's a privilage and it almost makes you humble, the Welsh are so patriotic about their breeds; I'm not ashamed to say it brings a lump to the throat! In spite of today's troubles I'd be back if I could!
We had a great trip down through the floods (it really brought home how badly some people/places have been hit locally) to just before Newbridge on Wye when we came to a grinding halt. Staggered along at an inch a minute; it took us from 10.30 am to 2.15PM to do SIX MILES to the showground and parked! Traffic had backed up ten miles behind us!
The showground itself seems to be holding up, the rings weren't too bad but I wouldn't like to be running on it!. There's lots of bark down in front of tradestands which is getting pretty soggy, thankfully, all the walkways are tarmaced which helps a lot but wellies are definitely the footwear of the day.
There is talk that they will hold tomorrow but the rest of the week are in doubt as they give horrendous weather for Wednesday; whether that's right or not can only wait and see; feel very sorry for any competitors who must be dithering whether it's worth it or not.
On the good side, I watched the Sport Horse classes and was chuffed to find I picked both winners and seconds while talking to a nice lady from Northern Ireland. The winner of the very strong 2 & 3 year old class was an outstanding filly by the recently deceased Abraham, very hard to fault her, beautifully turned out and she was Champion too; very well deserved IMHO. It was also very easy to move around as obviously crowds are well down.
As a spectator, if you have to travel a long way to the showground, I honestly would think very carefully whether it's worth it or not just for the hassle of the massive queues of today; hopefully, they will have ironed out the main problems as they were using buses to bring people in from outlying car parks across the road; if you're only 20 mile away then of course I'd go like a shot; it's such a great show and to see the Welsh Cobs come into the ring, that's a privilage and it almost makes you humble, the Welsh are so patriotic about their breeds; I'm not ashamed to say it brings a lump to the throat! In spite of today's troubles I'd be back if I could!
