County show gears up to welcome 60,000 visitors

Up to 60,000 people are expected to attend an annual celebration of agriculture and rural life.

The Dorset County Show, taking place on Saturday and Sunday, features livestock competitions, demonstrations and displays, along with a new live music stage.

Show jumping has been cancelled this year due to the dry, hard ground but has been replaced by a performance of stunt horses.

Show secretary James Cox said: "It's all come together over a year and now it's come to life, this mini town. It's just popped up after three weeks of building."

Cox added: "We had to cancel show jumping because the ground was just so hard and even now it's still far too hard... but that was replaced with stunt horses.

"We've got a brand new big music stage and that's got the Wurzels headlining tomorrow night.

"With dry weather both days, it's going to be quite the weekend."

Stunt rider Ollie Phillips of OG Performance Horses said riders and horses in the display team had also appeared in films and on TV shows, including Napoleon and Game of Thrones.

He said: "I get given problem horses, so people who have dangerous horses or horses that they are going to put down, I get those.

"I do have to spend a lot of time trying to reteach them and get them ready for things like the trick riding and the show environments.

"Most of my show teams are made up of everyone else's rejects."

Michael Murty's monster trucks - Big Pete and the Grim Reaper - will be back at the showground, destroying scrap cars and performing stunts twice a day in the main ring.

Murty said: "A huge part of the act is to show people the awesome power and the weight of the trucks by crushing the cars and one of the things we do that nobody else in the world does is the tug of war where we pull a car in half.

"We destroy five cars per performance - four we crush and one we pull in half."

Gavin and Stacey actress Alison Steadman will also be at the show, judging the novelty sheep contest.

Prizes are being awarded for the friendliest pet lamb or sheep, the sheep you would most like to take home, and the best fancy dress sheep.

Steadman, who has a holiday home in Dorset, said: "I grew up in Liverpool and I live in London but I love the countryside and I love animals so I think I'm going to be in my element.

"I'm really looking forward to it. I think it's going to be good fun."