Wigton

It's quite a while since I entered Wigton Show (near Carlisle in the lovely Lake District) and I was invited to judge, so off we went. A lovely drive up despite the heatwave, and a beautiful, huge, ringside camping space reserved for me - in the best part of the field where there was a cooling breeze. Bliss!
Chris Drinkhall and I measured a dozen dogs on Friday evening, after I had set up my courses for the next day. Setting the courses was hard work - not only because of the heat but because my back went into spasm. Luckily I had lots of help from the show organisers - they even arranged for Steven Richardson to fetch my aquaroll of water! Wasn't that kind?
Saturday was a long, hot, hot day - but great fun because my courses seemed to be running exactly as planned and were extremely well received by competitors. In fact, I don't think I have ever had so many complimentary comments about courses before (despite these being recycled from 1999 lol!) I had an excellent ring party, made up of such experienced handlers that any one of us could have taken over the judging - my thanks to them all, especially Jackie Richardson who scribed all day for me.
Had a real headache from the sun so went to bed early on Saturday - then spent a lot of the night in the bathroom......urgh! By the morning I felt completely washed out and totally unable to walk, let alone run a dog. Kirsty kindly took my dogs for a walk - not only did they not even look back for me, but they behaved impeccably on slack leads the whole way - traitors!! Mike tried to run Amber, and seemed to be bonding well until the lead came off - 1 jump and home!! Now that's more like loyalty!
By the afternoon I managed to run Bryn and got a clear in 1-3 jumping, but an even better run in the 3-7 jumping.......except that I accidentally hit him on the head as he was taking off for a jump so he knocked the pole down. What a numpty I can be sometimes. Tried to run Amber on a 'made-to-measure' agility course, but she was in Crazy-Frog mode after doing nothing all weekend, so I gave up and went back to the camper and some shade.
I was so grateful to Mike, Alex and Paula for helping me pack up the camper at the end of the day. I can honestly say that I don't know how I would have managed without them.
The journey home was made all the better by a message when I got home to say that the hospital are starting to organise my dad's discharge, ie getting occupational therapy and social services involved, as he is making good progress. Let's hope it continues!