IT was like Glastonbury but without the music. Torrential rain early last week led to the muddiest and messiest New Forest Show in history.

It was gloomy on the financial front too, as this year's three-day event was not expected to make any profit.

Organisers kept the show going until the official end last Thursday evening, but numbers were down, takings were low, and tempers were tested.

It was touch and go whether the show would continue on Wednesday afternoon when heavy rain soaked the site at New Park, Brockenhurst, once more - adding to the mudbath that had already formed.

However, thousands of visitors did brave the mud on all three days, the majority of them arriving by car despite pleas for them to use public transport as the parking fields turned to quagmires.

Four-wheel-drive vehicles were used to tow cars in and out the car parks and stewards spent three days pushing cars out of the mud.

Geoff Morgan, show chairman, said: "We have had a show but it has been a very difficult one, of course.

"Our teams have been working extremely hard putting down straw, wood chippings and stone.

"People have needed help getting out of the car park and the horse boxes have been difficult because they are so heavy. We used tractors to pull them out."

He said he did not think the show, which costs £1m to stage, would make a profit.

"This year's show has been generally about preserving its annual status," he said.

"We don't know figures yet, but I would have thought the vast amount of wood chippings, straw and stone used to make the ground better will eat into any profit."

Last year, soaring temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius kept many people away from the show, and others suffered heat stroke and nausea, resulting in more than 10,000 less visitors than expected.

Jackie Neylon, spokesman for the New Forest Show, said: "We never contemplated cancelling the show - there would have to be a monsoon or earthquake before that happened!"

The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery was the main attraction at this year's show and successfully entered the arena to show off their horsemanship on all three days.