ENTHUSIASTIC crowds and a high number of entries celebrated 130 years of Exford Show, one of Exmoor’s most popular social and sporting events, held at Court Hill, Exford last Wednesday.
Popular attractions included show-jumping, a gymkhana an inter-hunt relay challenge, family dog show, sheep and Exmoor pony classes, a stag antler competition, trade, craft and food tents, showing rings, and parades of staghounds.
In the equine classes, the Fortesque Cup for Supreme Champion went to Laura Jones of Bilbrook with her seven-year-old gelding Staghall Boby. Reserve equine champion was Jo Goodman’s 14 year old grey mare Waxwing Poppy Ang.
In the Exmoor pony classes, overall champion was Bluebarn Nancy, jointly owned by David Hodge and Julian Walters, and top prize in the Exmoor Horn and Devon Closewool sheep classes went to Richard Clark’s Devon Closewool hog ram.
The event began as a horse show tacked on to the Exford Cattle and Sheep Fair in August 1884 and within a few years had become a major social event, attracting over 200 entries from eight counties and crowds of more than 2,000.
Attractions were expanded to include a Wild West rodeo during which the public were invited to try to stay on an unbroken Exmoor pony, and a cart-horse derby.
The organisers say that the show has come a long way from its beginnings, when it was the Exford Horse Show and the emphasis is now less on showing horses and is a more rounded event featuring what Exmoor can produce, achieve and display.
