Horse fair

'The Horse Fair' by Rosa Bonheur

A horse fair is normally an annual fair where people buy and sell horses.

In the United Kingdom there are many fairs which are traditionally attended by gypsies and travellers who converge at the fairs to buy and sell horses, meet with friends and relations and to celebrate their music, history and folklore.

Many horse fairs are centuries old such as Appleby Horse Fair and The Great October Fair at Ballinasloe who vie for the title of the largest horse fair in Europe.

List of significant horse fairs in the United Kingdom

• Appleby Horse Fair, Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria
• Ballyclare May Fair, Ballyclare, County Antrim
• Barnet Fair, Barnet, London
• Brigg Fair, Brigg, Lincolnshire
• Dartmoor Drift, Dartmoor, Devon
• Horncastle Horse Fair, Lincolnshire
• Lee Gap, Yorkshire
• Stow Fair, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire
• Wickham Horse Fair, Wickham, Hampshire
• Widecombe Fair, Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon

Gallery

• 

  Valkenburg horse fair, 1618

• 

  'Horse Fair on Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh' by Paul Sandby, 1750

• 

  Stow Horse Fair, 1978

• 

  Appleby Horse Fair, 2007

See also

• Stow Fair, Lincolnshire, lost medieval fair which continued as a horse fair until 1954
• Banagher Horse Fair, in Banagher, County Offaly, Republic of Ireland
• Ballinasloe Horse Fair