I love the Royal. Processions of woolly alpacas, brewery carthorses, pramfuls of toddlers on the verge of meltdown and teenage clusters of emo culture warring with armfuls of fluoro sideshow prizes, oil-translucent bags of hot donuts, gritty with sugar (best not eaten though), wailing cat boxes and farm produce as art. The exhibition halls seem to be filling up with commercial stands selling everything from chinese massage to home loans, but there is still some of the agricultural show remaining if you know where to look.
Dashing back and forth to the agility rings is pretty stressful- I'd rather be hanging out with R and BabyJ and enjoying the show. If there’s a next time (fingers crossed for Charlie and Bella in the yards, at least), that’s what I’ll do. And I’ll take the week off from work, so it won’t matter which days he’s rostered on.
So I think that will be our last Royal agility, and probably our last agility altogether, now that I'm knuckling down to reality.
So the Royal in summary:
R ran Charlie and Fred in the yards- Fred was still pretty sore and struggled a bit on the truck, so R just helped him out. Charlie was not himself at all- I think it was a hangover from the whipcracking incident last year. The whipcrackers were still in their position beside the yards, and Charlie really was not into backing the race. Fred also had a run in the 3sheep on the main arena on Monday, and despite R being extremely nervous, Fred being sore and the weather being hot, they did OK and penned for an 80, which took them into the lead (at least until Tuesday, when John Charlick scored an 80-something with Gael). Fred was alternately fizzy and stiff and just not quick enough as the run went on, so not his best work, but I’m proud of them anyway.
R also used Jake, Bella and even Jim in the yards as demo dogs, and apparently they all went well. Jake was pretty controlled- maybe he’s finally growing up!
The “come-for-the-ride” crew (Bonnie, Tom and Trim, Tess) had a ball. Tom was a bit shy to start with, but soon chilled out, and Trim loved the attention. The Maggots got a bit of socialisation and Girl Maggot headed off to her new home (as Mac’s PrincessFlick, apparently!)
I enjoyed watching the agility- Terra and Kriszty, Jules and Diva, Sue H's young dogs (esp Dan- smashing young dog), and some other promising young dogs, like Di Rose's Flyte. It is amazing how much agility has improved since I started with Jack (must be 8 years ago now), I can't imagine what it will be like in another 8 years. The Royal agility is great as a spectator, because there's only one ring so you get to see all the classes, and the level of distraction tends to lower expectations and chill people out (as much as they can, given the restricted shelter, gate entry squabbles and having to arrive at 4.30am to get a space).
BabyJ had a ball. He was babysat by a variety of people during Saturday (thanks Michelle!) but on Monday my brother and his fiancee took him off to enjoy the show. He patted a pig, visited the Baby Animal Nursery, went on his first merry-go-round, and scoffed down all sorts of junk. And tried out every single quad bike on display!
Marianne and Coco doing a yard demo:
Nigel and Yarralonga Delta fill the force:
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