Ivybridge Donkey Sanctuary Annual Summer Fair 2013

1st June 2013 was the day set for the Ivybridge DAT Donkey Sanctuary (to which I am a volunteer) annual summer fair   Fingers and toes were crossed for a dry fair, as the previous two years it was torrential rain all day, which put a slight dampner on the whole proceedings.  But all change this year and the sun shone all day and hundreds of people came down to Filham Park for a family fun filled day.

The Donkeyworld shop was open and did a brisk trade and there were other stalls selling a variety of different items including cakes and plants, which all raised money for the Sanctuary. There were lots of different  games to be played inside and outside in the field, including a wellie wanging competition, crockery smashing, coconut shy, a duck race (which I was running), bouncy castles, a fair ground ride, and a main ring where the riding display was held and the DAT children’s awards took place.  The ring was also the place for the  dog displays including Canine Capers, Morris Men, tug of war including a children’s competition, etc and of course the ever popular and very well attended family dog show. Henry (who is our neighbour’s dog that I walk) and his owners came down, and Henry, much to his disgust was entered into the Veteran’s class, but didn’t go away with any rosette, but did his enjoy his dog biscuit just for taking part.

Here is a short video montage of the pictures I took on the day as well as some still images in the gallery at the foot of this post.

There were also donkey and cart rides that took place around the newly built and very peaceful sensory garden, where there were queues all day.

I was running a duck race, which was a lot of fun, which consisted of 2 pieces of guttering, some very small plastic ducks, some beakers, a container full of water at one end with another one at the other end.  The aim – to race one duck against another by filling a beaker of water and placing it behind the duck until it got to the end of the guttering and fell off into the container at the other end, and the first one to fall over the end was the winner.  It created lots of excitement and a lot of very competitive people, who were most disappointed that their duck didn’t win.  A prize was given for each winner of each race.  I was extremely busy as it proved to be a very popular game.  An awful lot of water spilled out on to the grass and made it quite muddy, and I was probably the only one who actually got my feet wet, on a beautiful summers day. I even roped my husband in to help, initially with the car parking, but he ended up being in charge of the wellie wanging competition in the afternoon, which was also a very competitive competition, with some lovely prizes for the winners in each of the 4 categories.

The highlight for our own donkeys was the arrival of the 2 massive Poitou donkeys who came down for the day from the main  Sidmouth Sanctuary, who were housed for the day next to our own donkeys’ yard.   There was an awful lot of nipping and jostling for position for a front row  to have a good look at these giants and to  rub noses with them, which was very sweet.

The little cafe and the barbeque did extremely well all day, as there were lots of hungry mouths to feed, so many that they actually ran out of burgers.

It really turned out to be a super dry, warm and sunny day, and hopefully everyone who attended had an enjoyable day out of family fun.   The staff and volunteers of the Sanctuary also went home hot and very tired.