The finalists of a fun competition to find the faces of this year’s Great Yorkshire Show have been selected – now the aspiring models are preparing to step on to the catwalk on the first day of England’s premier agricultural show.

Earlier this year, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, organisers of the event, launched a contest to find would-be catwalk models who live or work in the countryside.

The competition attracted dozens of entries from young men and women from across the country – all hoping to strut their stuff on the runway in the Skipton Building Society Fashion Pavilion.

Raffaelle Guy, 24, of Tockwith, and Ed Cartwright, 22, of Wetherby, have been picked as finalists in the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s 2011 Country Catwalk Stars competition.

For keen horsewoman Raffaelle, who competes at the Great Yorkshire Show each year, it’s not the first time she has entered a modeling competition. She reached the final 20 of a search to find the Face Of Harrogate a number of years ago – and is delighted to have reached the finals of the Country Catwalk Stars contest.

Ed decided to sign up to the modeling contest after seeing the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s Twitter and Facebook postings. He works on his family’s 160-acre organic farm at Swillington, Leeds, and is a regular visitor to the show.

This year the show runs from Tuesday, July 12 to Thursday, July 14, and is expected to attract about 130,000 visitors over the three days.