Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show: horseboarding and livestock

If you are after a proper day out in the Dorset countryside, the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show is back next week. It runs across two days, Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 August, with the main ring programme going from 9.30am to 7pm on both, so there is plenty of time to make a full day of it. The show is held at the Turnpike Showground in Motcombe, near Shaftesbury, and it is very much a family-friendly agricultural show built around farming, food and country life.

The animals are the obvious centrepiece. More than 2,000 of them compete in the champion livestock classes, with sections for horses, cattle, sheep and equine displays. This year adds a few new twists to the usual line-up: horseboarding makes its debut in the main arena, there is a dedicated Heavy Horse Village, and the rural demonstrations take in terrier racing, gun dog displays and a dog and sheep show. Between those, the main ring programme keeps things moving, so it is worth planning your day around what is on when.

It is not all about the ring, though. There is a food hall and farmers market with local producers, more than 250 trade stands to browse, and a good amount of hands-on stuff for younger visitors, from butter making and flour milling to milking cows. The site also hosts a Kennel Club dog show, a steam section and an art and photography exhibition, so it is easy to fill the gaps between the main events. If you are going with children, those activities are often the part they enjoy most.

A bit of background on the place itself is worth knowing before you turn up. The Turnpike Showground covers 79 acres spread across four fields, with a main field of 37 acres and a two-acre woodland area, and it runs on geothermal, solar and hydro power, which is not something you come across every day at a showground. It is run by Julian, Shirley and Zara Trim and sits on the main Gillingham to Shaftesbury road, close to the Wiltshire and Somerset borders and about seven miles off the A303, so it is easy enough to reach from Bournemouth.

A couple of practical notes if you are planning to enter anything yourself. The Tractor Triathlon entries close at 11.59pm on Sunday 16 August, and Grain and Fodder entries close at 9am on the morning the show opens, Wednesday 19 August. The whole thing is put on by the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Agricultural Society, so it is a proper local effort rather than a corporate event. Whether you are there for the livestock, the horseboarding, the food or just a day out in the Dorset countryside, there is enough going on across the two days to make it worth the trip.