Princess Anne and Sophie Wessex encounter beastly characters at historic event

Princess Anne and Sophie Wessex showed they're not afraid to hang out with less than savory characters during a recent event. As a matter of fact—the royals looked delighted among the big, hairy, individuals.

• Princess Anne and Sophie Wessex attended a historic county show.
• They posed alongside competition winners and Sophie even got to work!
• In other royal news, The Queen’s advisors feared for her safety on visit to Grenfell—‘it was very scary’.

Okay, don't freak out, the characters in question were animals! The in-laws had a hoot out among the livestock as they visited the Westmorland County Show. 

Sophie Wessex is following in Princess Anne's footsteps when it comes to royal duties and the event, which has been running for a remarkable 222 years, indicates things are going swimmingly.

The royal pair made sure they had good quality time with the stars of the Equine Centre, before meeting the MVP Champion Hereford Bull. Countess Sophie looked particularly delighted next to the Hereford Bull and it looks like she's ready to move into farming any day now.

What's a country event without a big beautiful dog? Well, Maude the Bloodhound proved quite the hit with the royals and received plenty of love too. This isn't surprising, of course, as the royal family is renowned for their love of dogs.

The event has been an annual big day out for 222 years and is located on the fringes of the UK's natural beauty spot, the Lake District. Every year over 30,000 people visit the two day event and especially enjoy the livestock show.

The show sees competitions for cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and alpacas, heavy and light horses too. 

Princess Anne got up close and personal with the horses, unsurprisingly. She's a keen horsewoman and her Olympic past and passion for all things equine are well documented.

As well as all the animal antics, there was also a chance to enjoy the Learning for Life Marquee. Proving she's keen as mustard to get involved, Countess Sophie grabbed a chisel and tried her hand at masonry!

Everyone knows that the best thing about a county show is sampling the local foods and both Princess Anne and Countess Sophie met with local producers as well as sampling some of the local produce too.

The Countess' proved she's just like all of us, making the most of any free cheese samples she could get her mits on! Perhaps she stocked up on local delights that can be incorporated into her dinner after she revealed Prince Edward’s secret skill in the kitchen. 

If this big day out is anything to go by, we have lots of royal antics between these two to look forward to!