Well I have been to my first show of the year - Wilmslow at Myerscough. I had a dog friendly BnB booked and set off just after lunch. Took the route to avoid the A34 which always seems to get jammed where it meets the M40 on a Friday afternoon, so went M4, off at J15 and then A417 between Swindon and Gloucester where I would get onto the M5 and head northwards.
Little Kaiser was coming along for the ride and I took Cadbury, Fleet, Rip and JaiJai. There were no classes for small dogs, Rip was going as he had Veterans and I was not sure about jumping Foggy without him having done any jumps for such a long time as he can then misjudge so he was not entered and Josie was still having time off after her spay.
Anyway back to the journey! Well it started to snow, and was settling in the fields but not the road so no real problem there and then the traffic on the dual carriageway stopped....and an hour and a half went by and we moved about 50 yards and the temperature was dropping - it was 5 degrees when I stopped and was now minus 2....the dogs and I were warm enough as I of course had the heating on the van.
The snow was now settling on the road and getting thicker and thicker. The radio was not saying much about the traffic so I thought I would ring Gloucester Police - well people ring Surrey Police who I work for!! They advised there was 12 miles of queuing traffic behind a jack knifed lorry and that the traffic was going nowhere for many hours.
Well my one criteria for going to northern shows is that I won't go if it snows as I just hate driving in snow and ice. So I rang and cancelled the BnB and came off at a tiny side road by a pub and went in there to ask how much further to the nearest junction where I could turn round and the kind lady in the pub explained a quick route on the now very heavily covered in snow side roads where I could get back on the other side of the dual carriageway and head home - so 6 hours after I left home I got back home and the snow was localised to that area so certain friends did not believe me and all I took was one photo:-
Some friends drive all the way up to Myerscough and back in a day and they are about 40 mins nearer than me so I thought I would set my alarm and give it a go....
Little Kaiser was coming along for the ride and I took Cadbury, Fleet, Rip and JaiJai. There were no classes for small dogs, Rip was going as he had Veterans and I was not sure about jumping Foggy without him having done any jumps for such a long time as he can then misjudge so he was not entered and Josie was still having time off after her spay.
Anyway back to the journey! Well it started to snow, and was settling in the fields but not the road so no real problem there and then the traffic on the dual carriageway stopped....and an hour and a half went by and we moved about 50 yards and the temperature was dropping - it was 5 degrees when I stopped and was now minus 2....the dogs and I were warm enough as I of course had the heating on the van.
The snow was now settling on the road and getting thicker and thicker. The radio was not saying much about the traffic so I thought I would ring Gloucester Police - well people ring Surrey Police who I work for!! They advised there was 12 miles of queuing traffic behind a jack knifed lorry and that the traffic was going nowhere for many hours.
Well my one criteria for going to northern shows is that I won't go if it snows as I just hate driving in snow and ice. So I rang and cancelled the BnB and came off at a tiny side road by a pub and went in there to ask how much further to the nearest junction where I could turn round and the kind lady in the pub explained a quick route on the now very heavily covered in snow side roads where I could get back on the other side of the dual carriageway and head home - so 6 hours after I left home I got back home and the snow was localised to that area so certain friends did not believe me and all I took was one photo:-
Some friends drive all the way up to Myerscough and back in a day and they are about 40 mins nearer than me so I thought I would set my alarm and give it a go....
So at 3.30am on the Saturday morning questioning my sanity I set off - lovely clear rounds, no traffic and no SNOW!
It only took me 3.5 hours to get there and I had a nice day at the show as did Kaiser who got to meet Flash his black brother.
At the show my only clear rounds were a 7th in the Veteran Jumping with Ripley - he flew bless him and had a great time and whizzed through the 6 weaves, and Cads who came 1st in the 4-5 combined Jumping - he did a lovely run so I was very pleased with this result - there were only 19 in the class so it did not feel such a big achievement as say winning a class of a couple of hundred with one of the big dogs but bless him he can only beat those that are in it! That is his first win towards winning out of Grade 5. Just baby and handler errors in the other 2 classes Cad was in - he did some nice bits though.
Fleet did some nice bits including a 2 jump recall in 2 of his classes - he and I have worked hard on this over the winter as we went for quite a few years with no wait and I thought we would give it one last go and yippee we are getting there.
Fleet did some nice bits including a 2 jump recall in 2 of his classes - he and I have worked hard on this over the winter as we went for quite a few years with no wait and I thought we would give it one last go and yippee we are getting there.
Some random photos of Cads and his 1st Place Trophy and Rosette - I will post again with some newer photos of Kaiser :)
Actually Cads does not look at all impressed!!
3 comments:
Gosh, the snow journey sounds awful. Well done on your 1st with Cads!
Well done with Cadas, what a good boy and I also hate driving in snow !
Well done Caddy! Good start of the year!!
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