Lincoln Agility Show

Kim and I had an amazing weekend at Lincoln’s 30th Anniversary show, even if we didn’t start off very well! In the first class, I was handling ok but Kim wasn’t switched on, and in the second class Kim was completely switched on and I was terrible! I’m still a bit disappointed in myself on that run, since we set off so well and got all the contacts, only for me to pull her off the right tunnel entry and then I also made her pop the last two poles in the weaves. I guess you win some and you lose some though!

Our last class was the 1-4 Jumping (that’s the course on the left, you can click to see a larger version), and we ended up waiting for hours to run, as it was due to run in one ring and then was moved to last class in a different ring. I’m glad we waited because it was the kind of course Kim liked, and I was determined to get a clear round out of her at some point. It was a long run from 1 to 4, and I think I was the only person in the class to tackle 6-7-8 on the left! We ran a nice clear, but it was getting late and we couldn’t be bothered to hang around to see if we’d got anything. The next morning I bumped into a friend of ours who had been camping on the showground, who congratulated me on Kim’s jumping win as they’d heard the presentation over the tannoy. It took another three hours to confirm as the results sheet went missing, but Kim won the Saturday Grade 1 Jumping.

Sunday we had a tricky course first thing, which actually went a lot better than I thought it would! Despite a moment where she stopped on the dogwalk, I was hopeful that Kim might have been in the places as there weren’t many clears, and she ended up 2nd. Bailey had an amazing run but a split-second of distraction when she saw her lead led to an elimination, which was one of the unluckiest runs of the weekend! The next agility course (on the right, click to see a larger version) was one I was a bit worried about since I thought I might have to nag Kim around it too much for her liking, especially with all the trappy bits. I shouldn’t have worried so much, since we had a fantastic run and finally got the agility win we’ve been waiting for – bring on Grade 2! Again, I think I was one of the few people to handle 1-2-3 on the left, and I even dared to layer in jump 10 when we tackled 5-6. Seems like our years of ring experience finally paid off!

We then waited another age for the final class of the day, the 1-4 Jumping. Kim went clear again but we had a hugely wide turn at one point and I really wasn’t expecting anything at all, but we decided to stay for presentations just so we could get the time for her AW points. So it was a huge shock to find out we’d won the class! Three 1st places in one weekend was more than I had hoped for.

It wasn’t all positive — we did lose all the dogwalk speed we’ve been improving all summer, which I was really disappointed about, and my front crosses were atrocious. So those are the two things we really need to work on!

It was a lovely show though. Great venue, fab weather, good courses, trophies to at least 3rd even in the smaller classes, and it managed to feel like a small, relaxed show even though there were 8 rings. I hope Lincoln can manage another show next year! Big congrats too to Emma & Bailey, who in their first show back for 6 months won out of Grade 1 (and beat Kim and I to it by 12 hours!), to Joanie and Meg who had some great placings in the very fast Grade 3 Jumping classes, and to Orienne and Woody with a 3rd in Grade 3.