We went to Ardingly on Wednesday to help set up the Tunbridge Wells show. Luckily Andy got the rings set out in reasonable weather and we took the dogs for a lovely walk on the cross country course. That night the wind really got up and I thought the caravan would blow away.
Thursday was reasonably pleasant and Andy helped with the equipment etc. while I came home to Tunbridge Wells. We'd had a call whilst at Ardingly to say that Mum was being transferred from King's College to Kent & Sussex hospital which is a huge relief as we won't have to make the journey into London again. She is still on the waiting list for a place at the Edenbridge cottage hospital. I went in to see Mum and she was reasonably settled in. I took my three girls with me and we had a lovely walk in our usual place at Eridge Forest. Andy walked his three on the cross country course again and I got back around 5.30 pm. As the evening arrived so the wind got up again and Thursday night was even stronger than the previous night. We hardly slept at all.
On Friday we put the finishing touches to the show, setting courses putting up the ring tents etc. and I did a stint on the gate as the competitors started to arrive. I was on the gate from 12.00 - 2.00 pm and was absolutely frozen by the end of the session. But, I was lucky as it was mainly dry, poor Derek and Ian who took over from me did most of their stint in the pouring rain. That night was blustery but no where near so windy however it poured with rain and at some point in the night a thunder bolt struck. It was like an explosion and really scary. Lots of dogs barked but our lot slept right through it including Kizzy who isn't bothered by much at all! She was very cosy in her little soft crate at the end of our bed.
We scribed for Alan on Saturday so it was quite busy. He set a very good course which I really enjoyed running. Sadly I got all the way round it and used the wrong release word for Poppy on my dog walk sending her over the wrong jump to finish. Alan and Andy (who was scribing at the time) just stared at me in disbelief! Oh well, Pops enjoyed herself. Andy did a stunning round with the Mad Black dog and sadly just missed the weave entry. Murphy has had some very near misses recently. He's such a difficult dog and it would be wonderful if he could get a result because when he gets it right he's quite stunning. Our A team came 2nd in the Pedigree Team Relay, that was Jay and Shy, Sara & Shaggie, Leah & Herbie and myself with Poppy. All the courses I ran on Saturday were lovely, just right for the level and fun to run!
Here are a couple of shots of Poppy taken by Lynn Sheridan. As always Pop's is totally focused on her work, these were taken in the Power & Speed class.
The Naughty Niamh did three out of four rounds clear with a couple of good places. Sadly she knocked a pole in the KC novice qualifier which was the one I really wanted to do well in. I have to start releasing her contacts faster, we are about 1 second off the winning times in most of our rounds and she is spending easily that on any one of the contacts. I think I'm releasing her fast but am told that isn't the case. I really need to get more rounds on video so that I can see exactly what I am doing. We've ring partied at the last three shows we've been to so I'm looking forward to some shows where we can spend more time together and with our dogs plus doing stuff like videos and photos.I started a cold on Thursday night and it got worse during Saturday. By the end of the day I felt really ill and couldn't face another wet or windy night in the caravan. So, we packed up and came home early. It was a shame to miss our Sunday's competition but I really didn't feel up to it and if the weather was anything like it was here at home then I'm quite glad we came home.
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