Blown Away

Blown away by the wind
Blown away by Stitch
Blown away by the support of friends
Blown away by the results
Consider me well and truly wind swept and gob smacked!

The weekend didn't start all that well; I was a bit dubious about towing the caravan in the high winds but as it was I needn't have worried as we weren't really going fast enough for it to effect us, the 2 and a half hour took 4hrs and after teaching most of the day in the rain I was rather pooped by the time we had unhitched and settled down.

The next morning though I was well rested and so began the Bitz and Bobz show. Stitch gave me a huge shock that day, breaking his wait for the first time with me and then proceeding to ignore every instruction I gave him. There was a party in Ring 2 and I was not invited. Initially I was just embarrassed, but then I was starting to think 'what if he does that in the Final on Sunday in front of everybody and with a commentator commentating his every mistake?!'. As it was he got his act back together in his next run and won it - Panic over.

The next day we had the Final running at the same time as the Chipping Norton show, I had decided I was going to try and run as many of my runs as possible as long as they didn't interfere with the final and I managed to get all 3 of them done and win 2 of them, unfortunately this success did not continue into the Finals ring. Along with most dogs Stitch was lured out of the weaves in the Invitation Jumping, the judge set the same trap in the Agility Final, so I had to decide if I was going to handle it the same as I did in the jumping on weave him on the other side where he would see the jump better, but with me on the other side he would hopefully think we were going another way...WRONG... he still jumped that jump...twice! Argh! In fact with most dogs either missing the entry or coming out the end early, there was only 1 dog that went Clear; A well deserved win from our new friends Anne and Stanley.

I was still really pleased with how Stitch and I ran, his contacts were stunning and my nerves only nearly took me the wrong way once! Overall I felt comfortable (not quite confident) and I had fun, which is what it's all about anyway!

Usually I''m at Thames this weekend in the year, a show which I really enjoy (mainly for the evening entertainment!) but I didn't feel I was missing out because the days we had in Chipping Norton more than made up for it. We were surrounded by lots of lovely friendly people and we were very lucky with the weather, it was a great weekend and if I am lucky enough to qualify the DARL Final again next year then I will be there!

Results:
@ Bitz & Bobs
Stitch - 1st, C1-7 Jumping

@Chipping Norton
Stitch - 1st, G1-7 Jumping
Stitch - 1st, C1-7 Jumping

@ Thames
Sarah & Narla - 12th, G1 Agility
Sarah & Ru - 14th, G1 Agility