JDA Show

I was looking forward to returning to Old Warden and Shuttleworth after an absence of 3 years, proceeding down the narrow driveway little had changed, massive old trees stood proudly in the fields. On the left the fields were full of whitish woolly things with black legs and faces which went baa!
Tuesday dawned somewhat overcast but dry I only had two early runs so it was an easy start to the day. It was not the best of days for Brigg who either missed his weave entry or had a pole down, Chart was in fighting form as he threw himself off the contacts with gay abandonment to mount up the faults and decided to do 'his own thing' in the jumping, however Kai went clear in his jumping to come 5th and Keeto worked his little socks off in all his runs to go clear. There was a qualifying agility run each day when points were gained to decided who would be in Friday's final. Constantly throughout the day we were treated to aircraft flighing overhead, the agility rings were but a few yards from the runway so we had an excellent view of the planes taking off and landing, a couple of them resembled gaily coloured kites with a boat shape beneath for the pilot, all looked very precarious.
Wednesday and a really hot sultry day, another day of faulted runs for Brigg, Chart excelled himself to go clear in the Helter Skelter after which he rested on his laurels! Kai went clear in jumping and again Keets was the star of the day even managing to come 14th in a ridiculously difficult grade 3 to 5 qualifying agility heat.
Thursday and another hot sunny day. Once again I had few early runs, our first class was the Steeplechase, a highly controversial course as it was in no way a Steeplechase but a definite jumping course minus the weaves. An indignant posse presented themselves to the judge to complain but their cries fell on deaf ears, the course remained unchanged and it was a challenging one at that. Brigg and Chart both went clear and to my surprise Brigg's ticket was placed on the top of the pile of clear rounds where it stayed for him to win the class. Much to my surprise on looking at the board announcing the finalists for the following day I found the Keets had qualified 15th out of 20 dogs, his first ever final and such a thrill. To crown the day Chart went clear in the jumping to take 13th place, towards the end of that class I ran Brigg. Having left him in a wait he went over the first jump and stormed into the weaves screaming with joy, I took a risk and left him to continue weaving while I beat him into the box to do a reverse turn to be able to get him over the diagonal jumps as tightly as possible, I sent him over the next 6 obstacles on his own while I raced to the 'snake' where I picked him up, once that was negotiated there were but four more jumps to go and he had completed the course. As soon as I finished I was told he was in the lead and that no one was going to beat his time, he finished up winning the class by over a second!
The Finals started a 9 am when everyone took their chairs and positioned themselves around the ring. Our course was surprisingly simple and flowing but nevertheless there were traps which were the downfall of some, Keets did me proud and apart from just missing the A Frame contact he did a lovely round and earned himself a special Finalists rosette, however I really think he appreciated the ice cream I shared with him more!!! Brigg's sister, Sola did a seamless round to win the class.