The show must go on!

Well, a late night getting dogs prepped (thankfully only 4 entered) and an early start for Alison and I to get over to Newby Hall in North Yorkshire in good time for the start of judging and what did we find?? An absolute mudbath!! (see the pic on Vicki’s Post although I'm not sure it quite capture's the full scale of it!). My van got stuck getting IN and a very kind lady that was at the show stewarding on a ring pulled us out with her little Citreon Berlingo (one reason why I ALWAYS carry a tow rope! lol); there was no way the trolley was going to move on that ground so we carried all our gear in then went back and carried all the dogs in (I hadn't spent all that time bathing and blowdrying to get them plastered in mud before they even got to their benches!) but my arms were absolutely killing me after all that! lol We carried them to the ring and sat them on a picnic blanket waiting to go in but their feet got muddy as soon as they hit the floor in the ring, at least everyone was in the same boat! The ground was treacherous for running on with people and dogs slipping all over the place and an awful lot of dogs 'flying tails' just to maintain their balance! The sun did come out in the afternoon and dry the ground a little but not much!

Anyway, Spark won his class (junior dog) so was really pleased with that, especially as this judge doesn't particularly like merles, she spoke a lovely glowing critique into her dictaphone about him and I had lots of nice comments about him when we left the ring too (he is a lovely, lovely boy!)...Dylan didn't get placed in the next class and was a bit giddy (the mud and spongy ground seemed to have that affect on some dogs). I had Eabha in minor puppy bitch, she was just 6 months and 2 days old and is still a real baby but no hiding she is beautifully constructed, well muscled and well balanced already so can move exactly how a BC should. Sue giggled at her, very much the baby in the line up, and said 'shall we move the tiddler to the back before we move them?' but she moved beautifully, stood beautifully to be gone over and came 2nd! Behind the puppy that went on to win Best Puppy. I was SO pleased with her, she's a natural . Kitten came 3rd in Junior bitch which qualifies her for Crufts too (finally!), she's had nothing but reserves and VHC's in the puppy classes and I was thinking there wouldn't be much point putting her in junior (her being so diddy still) but this was her first junior class and she got her qualifier. She may be small but she is well proportioned and she moves like you wouldn't believe (but especially when she's not trying to pull me across the ring...bad Kitten!). Faith then came 4th (reserve) in a good strong Yearling class despite the fact she's blowing her coat (we had VERY strong words about her tail beforehand after her brother's earlier performance! lol) so we came away with a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th...in that order! And 2 more Crufts qualifiers (Spark and Fi are already qualified) so I was glad we made the effort and braved the mud! Three Cheers for the judge (Sue Large - Wizaland) too for doing such a great job under such very difficult conditions!

We stayed 'til the end of judging, some lovely well deserved winners and a good day for BC's in the group judging as the Best Veteran (Angela's Gillespie's Detania Jillian) went on to take Veteran Group 4. We ended up helping several people get their vans off the field before we finally left. Fortunately, with a little push to get going, I managed to reverse mine straight off the field onto the roadway. We came home along the A59 and stopped to take the dogs for a run up Pendle Hill. It was a lovely warm, sunny evening...for a change! The dogs actually came off the hill cleaner than they'd come off the showground!! lol I also managed to get the camera out for the first time that day (only AFTER we'd put the dogs away, doh!)...

Pendle Hill approaching sunset...


Views from the Hill...