Well, a four and a half hour journey through the hills of Wales, and along the beautiful coastline, resulted in our arrival at the Pembrokeshire County Show - which is MASSIVE. The agility is just 4 rings in one corner of a huge agricultural and general 3 day show, but a very popular corner with crowds coming to watch every day, even when it rained.
I was juding Small and Medium Open Jumping, Small/Medium Pairs Jumping, Starters Jumping and Anysize Jumping on Tuesday, the first day of the show, and again my courses were well received by competitors. I was surprised at how many 'top' handlers had made the long trek into the south-west of Wales for the show, but the majority of competitors were local people at their local show.
On Wednesday I decided to 'blast' all the courses I ran with Meg and Amber, as they had had 3 days of being at the camper while I judged, or in the camper for a long journey. Time for just fun! We got no clears, but had a really good time, and Amber took the commentator in the Main Ring by surprise with her speed: "They breed them fast in Australia, don't they!" he said in a shocked voice as she stormed the course (but got a pole down)
On Thursday I was determined to tighten up on the start line waits with Amber, even if it meant 'throwing' the classes. As a result she won the Open Agility 2 clear seconds ahead of the (advanced) dogs that were second and third!! The judge was very impressed - so was I, particularly by her independent running contacts and weaves!
I was still in a happy daze when we entered the Helter Skelter, so I manged to put her over the wrong jump! Then we went into the Main Ring for the Open Jumping. I was still determined to get a sound wait on the start line, but this time she broke and came past the first fence to me. 5 faults, so we started again. She waited, and I released her - having already got faults I went as fast as I could for speed - picked up another 5 faults because of my positioning, but got the fastest time of the class again. After the class, the others and the commentator told me that all the money had been on Amber to win - I should have told them that I was more interested in the start line!
So, Friday dawned wet and wild as I started what should have been a six hour journey home. NINE hours later we arrived, tired and hungry - the motorway bit at the end of the journey had been shut, and we, with thousands of other vehicles, had been forced onto A and B roads to cross the Pennines back into Yorkshire. This last bit had added an incredible 2 hours to the journey!!
So now, back to training for our last weekend show, Dog Vegas at Scunthorpe, in a couple of weeks. Can Amber and I get another good result? 'Work in Progress' as they say!
