This is a collection of my images of the Appleby Horse Fair which I have put together over several years.
By way of background, every year in June tens of thousands of people, many of them gypsies and travellers, attend the Fair, which takes in the small market town of Appleby in Westmorland, Cumbria. Numbers are swollen by curious onlookers, eager to witness the colourful spectacle of horses being washed in the River Eden.
This first collection of images concentrates on the action shots showing horses being ridden and washed in the River Eden, before being led up to the trotting lane on Fair Hill. Here, the horses are ridden at pace to showcase them to potential buyers. This is known as 'flashing'.