Catch Up

Again it's been a while, Ember won up to Senior Steeplechase at Cheltenham UKA. It's my birthday this week so am out a bit though have got a cold and feel dreadful!! I have heard a song I would quite like to do a new HTM routine to and hopefully enter Rugby in January, I haven't done much this year as was concentrating on agility with Rum but I want to get going again next year.

The Jeremy Edwards video has now been finished, am really pleased with how it looks:


Also here's a pic of Lee and I in Castletown, Isle of Man from our training weekend, was a great weekend everyone was lovely:

Don't forget the LGT Workshop DVD is still available and will make an excellent Christmas present!!

www.leegibsontraining.com

RIP Kali

I know it's not a dog related post but Kali really was one of the pack, she was just like a dog and even did some media work, if only I had thought about it earlier she could have done more as she loved going out in the car and meeting everyone on set. She was a real star and a one in a million cat, there will never be another like her. Before the dogs came I had trained her to sit, spin, jump a jump and also fetch a stick as I was desperate to have a dog I treated her like one and I think she thought she was one. She had a massive cancerous growth and had to be put down today, she was in pain and they couldn't make her comfortable.

It's been a while....

I hadn't realised it had been so long to be honest. We haven't done much since KC Festival really and work has been quite manic, personal life has been busy so I haven't stopped really!

We competed for a day at Dordale and Cas picked up a 4th in Grade 6 Jumping which I was dead chuffed with as she is almost 10 now so she's still going strong, Ember had a win in Combined 1-7 Jumping. Then the show at High Peak was cancelled and I was so looking forward to it. We did a day at Bromsgrove and Rum had a place in a blast of a Combined 1-7 Jumping course however this was the beginning of my illness and I got worse that week only to find I had gastroenteritis after a trip to the Doc on the Thursday. I was totally gutted to have to pull out of judging at Dashin on the Saturday but had to spend the day in bed, on Sunday I felt better until I got up and felt horrendous again, I lived on toast for a week which was a great way to lose weight (1/2 a stone!) but that's soon gone back on!

I was just about up to fitness for UKA Top Barn where Cas won Senior Steeplechase 1, Senior Steeplechase 2 and Novice Jumping, Ember won Novice Steeplechase 1 and Novice Steeplechase 2, Rum had a 2nd in Novice Agility and a 4th in Novice Steeplechase - they were flying that day!

I have just got back from a training weekend with Lee to the Isle of Man, take a look at his blog as he has uploaded some piccies. It was a short stop and we didn't get to see much as our flight was soooo late on Friday (thank goodness for Weatherspoons in the airport!). But it was a great weekend, fantastic company and everyone was really receptive to our ideas and I hope everyone has gone away inspired! Well done everyone and good luck for the future. And thanks to Christine for looking after us so well despite her not being well!!

This week am doing something for Burgess involving training a celeb's dog to do agility! Will post more when we are done.

Ember's win @ Dordale:

Cassie's 4th @ Dordale:

Blog

Haven't had much time to blog, went to Spain instead of DIN (had an amazing time :))) )and did my packing instead of all of KC Festival lol. Rum had a 2nd in G5 Agility at Lincoln and Ember and Cas both had places in Comb 4-7 Jumping too. On the Friday at KC Festival Rum had his first G6 classes and coped REALLY well (apart from a bit of an all over the place run in G6 Jumping) so I was really chuffed.

I want to say well done to Chris Hickman and Fiddle who is my fav black and white collie ever, she's a stunner for winning this g3 jumping class and KC Festival and since winning another at DIN:

3 Down 1 to Go

I was so pleased with Rum at Derby he went clear in pairs with Carol and Calca and they came 3rd. He had a bit of a hesitant clear in Combined 4-5 Jumping and came 3rd (0.05s of his brother lol!) and 2nd in Grade 5 Agility with a gorgeous run round a tough course and held contacts - I was dead chuffed with that run round Mavis Sherwin's course. Sunday wasn't so good he skipped a weave in Jumping, missed his entry in Chum (I rushed him) and dropped a pole in 1-7 Jumping with another lovely run.

Cas was all over the place this weekend or I was! We had poles here and there as I was pushing her too much.

Ember had a bad Saturday which resulted in me taking her out of both agility classes and knocked a pole in C6-7 Jumping which she would have won by 2secs. No matter though as she won G6 Jumping on Sunday so just an agility to go now! And also had a 2nd in Comb 1-7 Jumping. Her other agility was a bit better but she's started flying her other two contacts now and before it was just her a-frame so am getting rather fed up of her pushing me all the time!

What a Weekend!

My life is just mega busy at the moment and I am not at home one evening in the week so I wanted to have a break but I dragged myself out! So considering on Friday I didn't feel like doing either of the shows I had entered at the weekend, we actually did pretty well.

Rum and I didn't have that great a show at UKA, he picked up a 2nd Q in Novice Snooker because he went back over the start before pink and black. Then in Novice Jumping he had a pole down, I took his tuggy into the Novice Agility and worked his contacts, last run was Novice Steeplechase and he again had a pole down - it's not like him to knock poles so I was unsure whether he needed to see chiro. However he didn't knock one at Chipping Norton so must have just been having an off day. We started off with Combined 1-7 Jumping when he had a lovely clear but I came out saying he was slow but being so pleased with a super tight turn round the corner of a box, went to have a look at the results and he was 3rd, just over 0.1 of a second off the winner! I was so chuffed with that. Then Greaded 4-5 Agility and he jumped off the top of the dogwalk landing on the contact, I was so annoyed and shocked I lost track of what I was doing and pushed him too far past the A-frame, shame because the rest was nice and I managed to get a super smart finish with a blind cross at the end of the weaves. Then Graded 4-5 Jumping and I did the stupid thing of changing my plan having watched others go and we had a refusal early on then made a right mess of it!

Cas had a 1st in Novice Jumping at UKA and a 2nd in Senior Steeplechase. I think it's a shame as she is going to be stuck in Novice forever as she doesn't do agility so I am contemplating training some UKA agility classes so I can try and get her up. Then at Chipping Norton she had a pole down in Comb 1-7 Jumping and am not sure why and in Graded 6-7 Jumping she missed her last weave as I pushed her out too soon.

Ember had been so naughty in some of her classes last weekend I had ended up taking her out of the ring, but this weekend she was fab! At UKA we had a 3rd in Novice Snooker, not sure how many points but it wasn't a Q as she had a pole down on one of the early colours. Then a storming round in Novice Jumping - 1st. She almost had a flying round in Steeplechase but right at the end decided to change a flick flack into a pull through ha! Her agility round we trainined. Then at Chipping Norton she had a nice round in Combined 1-7 Jumping but flicked left round a jump and back jumped. Followed it with a storming round and won Grade 6 Jumping with a time that was 1 second quicker than the winning Grade 7. Her agility she was NAUGHTY!! Anyway for her win we got a portrait shot off the photographer there - DS Event Photography:

Rum is Grade 6!!

Just a quick post to say Rum won G5 Jumping at RVA so is now Grade 6 - KC Festival will be his first G6 I think, which was his first G5 last year! So that's nice he has spent a year in grade 5, I have been holding him there this year (contacts and not competing in jumping lol!) but thought it was about time he moved! He also had a 3rd in G5 Agility, Cas a 2nd in G6 Jumping, Emz a 2nd in G6 Jumping and 5th in Steeplechase. Videos to follow at some point.