I suspect your visitors may have suffered from "poor timing"!
Hello Lisa
I hope you are right it was just down to the poor timing and it was my first thought - but as it was what they came over for in the first place I am assuming they stayed all day.
Is there usually a DCS stand? Who mans that? Perhaps they did meet people at a DCS stand but they didn't mention it to me, so I don't think so - pity.
It is a long time since I have done much showing myself! I used to show my Dads dairy herd of Holstein/Friesians....that is about 30 to 40 years ago and I was certainly stressed in my teens when a practically white jumpy heifer had just covered herself in runny poo before going in the ring!!! However I would like to think I would have still managed to explain the situation and said come back later. I've only done a couple of shows with Dexters and that was a few years back but I talked to people all day and enjoyed their interest.... All except for the lady with the pushchair at the very first show with my young bull, I tied him up and went to drive off to park the vehicle, as I went to move off she pushed her young child right up tight to his head so the toddler could stroke his face!!! I didn't leave his side all day after that and got someone else to park my vehicle...I talked to her as well...
My wife's biggest worry is when people, particularly children, come up to stroke the animals wearing sandals! Never had a problem to date but it's amazing that people don't think.
Rob R wrote:My wife's biggest worry is when people, particularly children, come up to stroke the animals wearing sandals! Never had a problem to date but it's amazing that people don't think.
My biggest worry is when the owners let their own small children totter around the animals legs with a brush in their hand.
BUT....Some people contacted me a few weeks back to say they were coming over for The National Show from Ireland and could they see my herd afterwards. I agreed and they came yesterday.
They saw the herd in the morning, I gave them lunch and then took them to The Welsh National Sheep Dog Trials in the afternoon, lovely people, we talked and talked and had a lovely day....so what is my point?
At the show practically nobody had time for them. They were so upset, they came a long way for this. They expected to chat to owners about Dexters in the lines and talk to prominent official members of The DCS. It was The National Show weren't there any council members around for them to meet? They looked hard enough. This is not how it should be. People that are showing should be ambassadors for the breed and find time for a smile and a quick word. They had looked forward to a day steeped in Dexterism.
Moomin were the only owners that did this, the people that came to see me mentioned a young man that they talked to and had the time and the interest to chat for a while.
Stephanie
Having just read the update from the office on the National Show and Sale it goes to show how people's perceptions differ.
I couldn't agree more I also had that email but when I put my original post up nobody put me right as they so easily could have and said there was a DCS stand at the show for all to see and these ***** were the people manning it. Maybe my visitors were very bad at finding the right people and also at finding the DCS stand? If people were there, willing, friendly and ready to chat, that is wonderful and I stand corrected.
I am delighted that many thousands of people were interested in the breed, I assume there must therefore be a huge influx of new members from the show.
Whilst reading through this discussion board I came across your post. I thought I will wait for a bit before I write anything, so I waited. 144 views later to our hello post we have had two replies one happens to be from yourself. Maybe this question should be given more consideration as I can only assume that as the 144 people were on the PC, time was not the issue.
Having revisited this thread, the original comment could have had some local dairy shorthorn herds in mind. Two weeks ago I took baby Dexters to a very local show with only dairy calf classes. I'd checked Dexters would be accepted before entering (on the strength of the now defunct Vycanny milking Dexter herd). Spent the day talking to loads of public & friends & one interested family are thinking of buying from me so well worth doing.
A week later, bigger local show with Dexter classes. Same shorthorn people in the same lines as the Dexters. Not one even said hello. One family have a holding a half mile down the road from me. The others have been in the same cattle lines for the past 25 plus years I've been showing. It takes a VERY long time for incomers to integrate around here.
