Anyone would think it's a one-horse race

THE British public dutifully made their way to polling stations from 7am yesterday with some even bringing four-legged friends along.

- Hanna Geissler

Keen equestrian Heatherbelle Bates travelled in style, riding her horse to the door of Holne polling station in Devon.

Social media sites were flooded with images of dogs waiting patiently for their owners, including pampered Shih Tzu Joey, who was spotted in a pram outside St James' Church in Edinburgh.

Other pet lovers opted to bring their cats and birds.

Neptune the snake was spotted outside a polling station in Dorset.

Weird and wonderful locations for exercising democratic rights included a launderette in Oxford, Fullwell Windmill in Sunderland, a fossil museum at Kimmeridge on the Dorset coast and Sheffield United's stadium. Voters at Carlton, Cambridgeshire, were ushered through an awning and into a caravan.

At Sir Keir Starmer's polling station in North London waiting journalists were treated to cups of tea by local resident Hilda.

But despite weeks of careful preparation, the ballot process did not run smoothly everywhere.