“I find this – the dogs and the dog competitions – way more exciting than anything else going on in the showgrounds.”
Over in the horse pavilions, Scott sisters Eva, 17, Amy, 15, and Pippa, 12, have been tending their Clydesdale horse Beth and showing her off in competitions held in the livestock pavilion.
Happy days: Alexander Elford, 13, spruiking at his family’s sideshow stall.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The bulk of their show efforts aren’t glamorous. They’re up at dawn to tend to 800-kilogram Beth – whose show name is Murroka Bethany – by brushing, feeding, exercising, washing and shovelling manure.
But they’re old hands, having brought various horses to the show with their mother, Louise Scott, and her cousin, Barbara Ford, since they were little. They sleep in stalls on the grounds.
They get the odd few hours to head into the carnival with friends, but the girls, from Emu Creek near Bendigo, also loved to catch up with fellow horse exhibitors, many of them friends, from all over Australia.
Eva said: “We definitely spend lots more time down here in the horse livestock area. We love it down here. We’d rather be down here with the horses than up there [at the carnival].”
On sideshow alley, Alexander Elford, 13, was spruiking for customers with a microphone, handing out tickets and presenting stuffed toys at his mother Jessica Harris’s stall, Joylands Lucky Numbers.
Alexander, who has come from Sydney for the show, said he enjoys talking to people, being with his mum and hanging out with cousin Dametrey, also 13.
Harris said Alexander is a good spruiker who works a couple of hours a day for pocket money, and it’s given him confidence, people skills, and money handling and work experience.
“I’m very proud of him,” she said.
Melbourne Royal Show runs until Sunday, October 5.
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