Stow Fair Report May 15th

On Thursday the 15th May 2008, I attended Stow Horse fair to monitor the animal welfare with other members of Equine Market Watch.
This was the first time I had ever attended Stow, so I was expecting a shock at the sights and goings on of the day and event! I certainly got this.
We arrived about 10.30; it had already started raining very heavily.
We walked through Stow town down to the main fair site.
Apparently, in previous years many of the horses, and in particular the Trotters, were raced up and down the main high street amongst
the general public and traffic. It was nice to see this had been stopped on this occaision.
The police presence was large, with mounted police also there.
When we arrived on the actual fair site, it was already very busy and also extremely muddy!
However this did not stop the young ladies wearing their extreme clothing with high heels and sandals to wade and slide through the mud!
A sight one could only imagine unless seen for yourself!
There were a vast amount of horses for sale on the site.
Overall the horses, ponies and donkeys we saw were in good condition and well turned out for the event.
Some were in fact very overweight, but a few, in my own opinion, were underweight also.
The horse fair provided a 'nicer' environment for the equines on sale, compared to some sales.
Most horses were tethered to a ground post, some tied to horse boxes or being lead around.
Numerous mares with foals, some looking to be, only days old, at foot, were tethered on site, the foals standing out in the rain shivering.

One coloured trotter looked to be in a very bad way, he looked like he had completely shut down and had given up.
He stood tucked up with his back legs shaking and folded beneath him he was covered in a soaking stable rug that hung from his slight frame beneath.
He wore brushing boot with wounds evident beneath. It was heart breaking to see him stood, almost wishing his life away.
Oh so hard to leave him...........
We noticed that the women do not handle or have anything much to do with the equines; it is all seemingly, at this venue, left to the male members of the family.
Huge bundles of cash were seen being exchanged between hands for deals all around the site-trade was brisk.
Horses were then loaded into boxes which were then tried to be driven through all the mud.
This caused much entertainment. Some of the vehicles towing the horse boxes were so over the legal curb weight limits.
We witnessed a new BMW coupe trying to tow a heavy weight box up hill through ankle deep mud and sludge.
Not surprising this ended up jack-knifed, on the hill.
There was a tractor on site, the driver doing a roaring trade pulling out stuck traffic.
We watched men handling and loading equines of various sizes and temperaments, never making eye contact, most
have a cocky body language about them. The horses simply load.

There were several crates of adult dogs and puppies for sale, luckily no tiny puppies at this event.
One stand was selling a Westie bitch that has been seen at other events for sale.
This time, we were told, she had a 5 generation pedigree, slightly different from the last tale we had heard about her... The dogs stood in dirty cages, some with only soiled bread to eat. One older German shepherd had many war wounds on it, a sad face looking out of the cage ever hopeful for a kind hand.
Also on the same stall were ferrets, rabbits and ducklings for sale, all in, frankly, dirty cages.

The ferrets looked very unwell, with one in particular causing much concern to us all.
We approached the RSPCA onsite about the ferret, they informed us ''yes they were aware of this
animal, they had spoken to the stall holder and all they could hope for was it going to a new home???!!!!!''
The ferret was still for sale when we left and I know we all felt sad and some what guilty that we had left him behind.
A small clutch of baby ducklings did come home with us though and are now happy and loving their new home.
As we were leaving a group pof very small children were touting a live rabbit and asked if we wanted to buy it, an offer
we declined, the children were no more than 6 or 7 years old yet openly selling a live animal to anyone. 
We saw several trotters being raced through the crowds but not as many as I has expected.
I think I went into a state of shock at one point at the sights of the day and some of the items on sale were quite shocking.
I had to remember not to stand with my mouth wide open staring!