00:00I moved from Sydney down to Guatemala actually which is just 10 minutes out of
00:04Kangaroo Valley and about just before the bushfires and Kangaroo Valley was
00:11the only show that kept going at that time a lot of the others had to cancel
00:15but the valley kept going and so it was that I came to my first Kangaroo Valley
00:19show and it has a special special magic it's called the friendly show and not
00:25for no reason it's very unique in its situation as you can see the mountains
00:31are behind us and it really sits in a natural amphitheater the arena here is
00:36just full of incredible horses and you get an aspect of that so they're really
00:41the hub of the whole show and last year introduced the thoroughbred horse racing
00:47Association got behind it which means that horses that no longer have a life on
00:52the track and now retrained in equestrian so it's a really beautiful second
00:56chance story and last year by its introduction we had a whole lot of new
01:02competitors come so it was a really exciting thing and something that's
01:05unique to the area other unique things to Kangaroo Valley Kangaroo Valley is known
01:13as the canoe capital of the world lots of incredible estuaries and rivers and dams
01:18to be paddling in and so in 2023 we introduced canoe racing and that is
01:28literally putting a canoe over your head and sprinting for a hundred meters so you
01:33won't find that anywhere else in any other show I can assure you and some other
01:37unique things that we have is last year a short film festival as an extension to
01:43our photography section arms and certainly we were inundated with entries
01:47last year which was fantastic and again this year and we have a screening tomorrow
01:52evening at 7 p.m. so another great innovation here in the valley we have a
01:57public holiday which is just for the valley and it's a long-held tradition that
02:04people in here who have lived for generations value so much and the kids
02:09burst with excitement to get in the gate at 8 30 in the morning one of the um now
02:14stewards of the horse racing remembers those early days as a kid coming here
02:19and she said it's much like Christmas Day the excitement's palpable and so we
02:24welcome everybody to come down to the friendly show here in Kangaroo Valley it's
02:29great value um it's not going to be hot which is a great relief for us all but if
02:34it does get hot the pool is there and entry to the pools included on Saturday so we
02:40welcome everybody for a great our 139th Kangaroo Valley show
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