Nottingham (Derbyshire Peak District) Hinkley

Derbyshire was sandwiched between Nottingham and Hinkley and I am so glad that it was or Hinkley would not have happened for me at all. I don't think ANY agility would have happened for me ever again if it weren't for those lovely quiet slow few days in Derbyshire.

Nottingham - the best bit was Archie winning BOTH his Small and Medium combined Allsorts Jumping :)



There were horrid bits; the main part on the Sunday isn't really mine to tell but suffice to say we helped a couple get themselves to a vet following a fight between two of their dogs. Despite all their efforts their little jack russell died in the afternoon. Our sympathy goes to them. We too have had a little jack russell in our arms as we screamed to a vet, only to lose him so unexpectedly only hours later. Seeing their little mite brought back very vividly our experiences with Henry. No words could help them any more than they helped us a year ago. Heartbreaking.

Agility consequently went haywire for me - it hadn't been brilliant the day before. Exhausted from work and being ill I don't think I could have run Nellie in a straight line let alone in Champ. I tried and that's as good as it got. Sunday was a grey sheet over my head and in the end in sheer frustration at my total lack of leadership, Nellie flew in to me and bit me on the inside of my leg. It really HURT. All I could do was yell 'Don't ********** bite me' and try to exit with whatever dignity I could muster. The only run I actually looked like I had ever run a fast grade 7 dog before she took herself off into a tunnel despite even the judge looking completely flummoxed as to why she had! She was telling me very clearly: shape up or ship out.

I wanted to give up agility and I didn't want to give up agility.

Gradually, walking, cycling and just being very quiet with Iain, Nellie and Archie as company the light began to come on again. The sun came out and we only did what we wanted to do, when we wanted to. Lovely. Slept A LOT. Cooked lovely food. Did things slowly. Read. Played board games. Listened to the wind in the trees. We even rescued a cockerel on the road. Last time we were up there we stopped to rescue a lamb on a very busy road and a farmer stopped to help us. Had to be done, couldn't just keep going.







On my birthday we took ourselves up on to Kinder Scout in the sunshine just like last year and sat in exactly the spot we sat with Henry and Pop when we were blissfully unaware of the fact he'd be gone less than three weeks later and of what was going to happen to Pop. We remembered how happy we were that day and checked to see the spot where Henry taught Nellie how to hunt for mice (or meece as we call them).



And then we walked back down and I felt much better.

Still didn't want to go to Hinkley. Head straight for the things we did in Derbeyshire was one thing. Head straight for a show as big and as eventful as Hinkley was quite another thing altogether.

Decided to go. There was a lady at the little campsite who had done breed and done even more obdience in the past. Our van stickers intrigued her and we chatted. Told her how I was feeling about agility and I think because she understood how losing Henry and Pop has knocked me sideways and undermined my confidence it really helped. Bereavement makes you feel isolated, like no-one understands. So...

..I braced myself to try to run Nellie properly with a whole brain and made a decision NOT to be videod. I am way too critical and having watched Nottingham runs it was an easy choice not to bother. So no more videos - just Iain's gentle criticism or praise.

And I am glad I went.

Yes, we had two very good runs that boosted my confidence and gave me a real lift. Perhaps Nellie and I aren't that bad a partnership after all!?!
One was Crufts Singles where we placed top ten and so got a few points. (We just need to get some more..) and the other was a clever KC Olympia course that rather perversely I really liked because it was different. And we got 5th. And we had two wide bits! So that puts us in to Day 2 of the semis. You could call that a result. I was a disaster in Champ. Had to put Nellie in a sit and re-start in the Jumping somewhere in the middle as I had messed up and Nellie was running in every wrong entrance of each tunnel like she was on speed or something. As I told her after: I guess that is how it is going to be at the moment - on it, or most definitely not on it at all!

What was also nice was finally being able to talk to a few people about things without getting myself into a mess and finding that many people do understand how I feel because they too feel the way I do about their dogs.






Packing up the awning later exposed a flat tyre on the caravan which Iain duly changed for the spare. He tightened the bolts as he has had to do before and off we went. A couple of hundred yards along the road leaving the venue we heard a clunk, and saw smoke billowing out behind us...the wheel had come off and was jammed into the wheel arch. We were blocking the road and there was nothing we could do about it. All the bolts had sheared off and we had no spare..it was the spare. Stuart and Ann Harmes, who found themselves stuck behind us, were very helpful and then they had to reverse and turn their caravan to go the other way. Another lady shot back to the show to tell everyone to turn left, not right, out of the venue while we sat and waited for the police (blocked road) and the AA. The police officer was lovely and we all had a good chat. Turned out he had grown up in Weymouth and really wanted to leave Leicestershire to move back down to Dorset...

We got to bed at 3.20 the next morning. Up for work at 7. Holiday over.