Wet Horse Trials

This weekend its the International Horse Trials at Chatsworth, and yesterday we went for the day. Last year's was cancelled because of the bad weather, and I suspect they were hoping for a nice hot weekend this year. Well, thy didn't get it. When we got there it was freezing. And then it started to rain. Having watched Eddie Izzard do a hilarious routine about dressage on Friday night (think trying to reverse a horse into a cupboard), I wanted to see some, but it really was very wet!

We managed to get very close to the falconry display, but the Barn Owl was very bedraggled, and didn't feel much like flying.

One of the harris hawks flew into a nearby tree, which was slightly confusing to her as she was a young one, and had never been in a tree before:

Luckily, she was hungry enough to fly down to the bits of baby chick being offered to her.

It was a shame about the rain, but we wandered round the trade stalls, craft tents, and food stalls, and just as we were leaving the sun came out, so we went down to the water jump (usually known as Queen Mary's Bower) to watch some of the cross country event. This is much more exciting I think.

Enjoyable day, despite the weather. I did feel I was lacking three things though. Brown wellies, a barbour jacket, and a dog.