A day at the show

A warm breeze ruffled my hair, as I paid my entrance fee and tucked the show programme into my pocket to read later. Wensbury agricultural show is held every year in July. A row of tents loomed in the distance as people began filing into the showground.
I smiled as I watched parents with excited children, dancing along holding hands, as they moved towards the stalls. An elegant chestnut horses trotted by, bringing with it the warm aroma of polished leather and hoof oil, to momentarily replace the mixture of candy floss and fried bacon that filtered across the field, and made my mouth water.
A battered trailer advertising ‘George’s racing geese’ intrigued me, and I glanced at the programme, the geese were performing at ten o’clock in the main ring. I walked across to where a crowd had gathered near the ring ropes. In the collecting ring several sturdy men with border collies tugging eagerly on their leads, waited patiently for the birds to be unloaded.
The commentator’s voice blasted over the loudspeakers, ‘racing geese are about to perform’, and the dogs barked in anticipation. I stood at the guy ropes, as the slim white geese where herded into the ring by a sturdy man wearing blue overalls. A battered cap covered his unruly hair. I counted twenty lean white geese, with long legs and bright orange feet, milling about in the centre of the show ring.
The first collie trotted at the side of his owner, his bright eyes watching the geese. Several cones were placed around the arena, each dog had to herd the feisty geese around them and into a pen in the middle of the ring. The handsome collie with a white dash on his face proceeded to round up the geese and expertly move them around the cones and into the pen. The crowd applauded as dog and man left the ring.

A dark brown collie bounded into the ring, panting in excitement. His owner, a red haired boy, moved onto the course waiting for the whistle to sound. Suddenly one of the geese made an escape from the gaggle and disappeared unto the ring ropes, closely followed by George. Several minutes elapsed before he returned and crawled under the ropes, goose wriggling under his arm, much to the amusement of the crowd.
He slipped on a pile of horse dung, and man and goose landed in a heap on the grass. I laughed at their antics, as he jumped to his feet and bowed to the crowd, and returned the goose to the gaggle.
The event finished with the red haired boy and collie winning the event. The boy patted his dog on the head as he collected a silver cup from the judge. By the end of the day as the show came to an end, I could not wait for next Summer to visit the show again.

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