It was our first camping show of the season a couple of weekends ago, Alex did a great job towing up there, and when we got there on Friday evening some friends had saved us a good camping space which was great! We set up our camp quite quickly, including putting up our full canvas awning, to a reasonably calm evening, took the dogs for a walk around the showground, and had quite a good night's sleep under our toasty duvet - it was however unfortunately NOT the sign of things to come!!
We were managing one of the rings on the Saturday all day, which was quite good fun, and Alex did a lot keeping everything running smoothly, the only down side was the weather, blowy, cold, wet and miserable - very frustrating though not entirely unexpected... we cant complain, there was a good team spirit getting us through the day!! The dogs were fantastically well behaved, as much as they probably didn't want to come out of the van much - when we are helping at a show, they do have to be very patient, and they were all brilliant. As I kind of knew already though, Kiah doesn't DO calm at agility when she's been sitting in the van resting during the day, so we had a bit (more than usual) of a wild child during our runs!! It didn't help that I was being more cautious due to the ground conditions, but there were some positives - an excellent weave entry in one, and we definitely had a good time despite the weather, and there were some nice courses again. We didn't get any photos/videos of this weekend, though I've received another fantastic video of Kiah in slow-mo from Roy (from a different show), such a fantastic feature on the camera and just absolutely brilliant to watch.
At the end of the day it was nice to get back into the warm and dry of the caravan, and use the awning as a refuge for our wet clothes - but still there was no let up in the weather whatsoever, not even overnight and right into morning!! The fact that we knew it didn't stop overnight is the worst thing, as neither of us got an ounce of sleep, the wind and rain felt like we would either lose the awning, or the whole caravan would blow over it was that bad, I think most of the showground was the same!! It was a relief getting to Sunday morning, and the show committee made the unfortunate, but by far the best and bravest decision to cancel, parts of the showground were completely underwater, the wind was still strong and it would have just been dangerous to continue.
There have been a few number of shows cancelled since, so they aren't alone in having to abandon weekends, it is such a shame for organisers who see all their months of work go to waste, and for the competitors who enjoy our hobby. Of course in some ways it is good as we do so desperately need the rain here (as long as its the right sort!?) its just that agility is a bit of a fair weather sport - and we're fair weather campers so it would be nice for it to improve soon... please!!
