So, you couldn't fail to notice that last week was a little bit wet, in fact I think it rained every day of the week, so I guess you might have expected ground conditions to be a little soggy for the UKA Easter agility show extravaganza, but nothing prepared me for what I saw Sunday! I have to say me and mum had our concerns Saturday night about what conditions might be like for the Sunday of the show, but reports on various forums said there was a bit of mud in the entrance to the field but that 4x4s were on standby to help out those few who got stuck, and that conditions in the ring were a little slippery but not too bad and the rings were being moved to new ground. So we decided that this didn't sound too bad and headed up at 6am. Well, the sight that greeted us on arrival was a little worse than described! The gateway to the field was very deep in mud, and cars were having to be towed in to the showground before the day had even started! Luckily we made it in without too much trouble, but Greg Derrett himself was having to pull others in all morning (and I have to say he seemed to be doing it with a big grin on his face!). So we headed up to the rings to have a look - what a mess! There was barely any visible green grass in most of the rings, there wasn't anywhere to move the rings to, and the mud was pretty thick - definitely more than just 'a bit slippery'! Mum instantly decided to scratch Willow from her Beginners Agility run for fear of her slipping off of one of the contact pieces, so then we had to wait to see which of our other classes would be up first and what the conditions would be like in that ring.
Finn's Beginners Jumping class was next up, and the course was nice but there was a lot of mud in the ring and I wasn't sure how well he'd be able to jump given that we're still working on his technique on nice solid ground, let along inches of mud! He tried his best, but he struggled to clear some of the jumps, and he really didn't see the now very brown weave poles (and he wasn't the only one to struggle with this), so I decided not to run him again as it just didn't seem fair on the now plastered little monkey and his poor little legs! Somewhere around this time mum managed to trip over a tent rope and fall over in the mud, and wasn't best pleased! She changed into her spare set of clothes, decided to run Willow around the one class that was now ready for her, and then we were going to give up and go home before any of us (human or canine) picked up an injury. However Willow went clear, bless her, so we then had to wait around for the prize giving before we could give up and go! It certainly wasn't her fastest or most confident run ever, and she got a bit confused and wasted a bit of time going around a jump as mum was struggling to stay upright whilst giving the correct signals, but she did it, and I even managed to get it on film...
Both dogs look a bit uncertain in places and start putting in extra strides, and when even Mr Finn starts putting in extra strides you know the conditions aren't good! So despite having travelled all the way there at a ridiculous time in the morning, it seemed more sensible to forfeit the runs and give up for the day rather than risk injury to any of us, because at the end of the day agility is supposed to be fun not dangerous!! So having decided to finish for the day at 11.30am, we then waited almost 2 hours for the prize giving for Willow's class, which was slightly frustrating! And then as we were about to go, someone spotted we had a very flat tyre and no spare! So we were towed out of the field onto the lane, and there we sat for 2 hours waiting for the AA to send someone out to change the tyre!! The only positive to this was that at least we had prime view of everyone else attempting to drive down out of the field in the mud, and there ensued many cries of 'go on, go on, he's going to make it, keep going...oh no, he's stuck'! Wish I'd gotten some of that on film, could have made some money on You've Been Framed!
So all in all it was a pretty mad and long day! I can't believe how many people kept turning up in the morning and driving into the mud, we must all of been mad! Or how many people ran their dogs around...I saw quite a few people slipping over, and some pretty filthy looking dogs! But some how everyone seemed to be smiling despite it all. Except for Mr Finn when he had to have a bath, he didn't appreciate that!...
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