Monday 4 July 2011

Course Plans from Denmark Seminar July 2nd - 6th



For those of you on the seminar to practice and remember what we did.

Lee

www.leegibsontraining.com

Qualification for FCI Worlds 2011

Hello,



The last few weeks have been a great mix of emotions for me. I am currently in Denmark doing a 5 day seminar course, before taking a couple of days off and moving on to Dania Cup starting Sunday 10th July.


The seminars are 4 x 1.5hour sessions a day, where I am trying to give the students a sense of what is happening on UK courses, as opposed to FCI courses. They are all enjoying it so far!


I am judging Open Agility on Sunday, and Agility 1 & Jumping 3 on Thursday, before starting my journey home. I will arrive at Rugby Show on Friday evening.


Now for the best news, last Monday was the Team GB selection day for the FCI World Championships in Levine 2011.


Scott worked sensationally, gaining 4 top 5 places on the day, meaning I finished 2nd overall in the ranking systems, 2 points behind Dave Leach, and some 15 or so ahead of 3rd & 4th who were in turn ahead of the rest of the field.


The rules for the day meant finishing in the top 2 would guarantee you a place in the squad for Team GB, and a further 2 handlers would be selected (as stated on the KC schedule)


I made sure I ran atI pace (2x3rd places), but without making stupid errors such as pushing off contacts or letting the pressure of the final run get to me, (although Scott never misses contacts anyway!) and did what I had to do to finish 2nd.


So I was thrilled with the prospect of running both indiviuals and team at the World Championships. However the management decided that they were going to move the goal posts somewhat by selecting 6 large dogs to travel. I don’t have a problem with that, what I have a problem with is being dropped from Individual runs and only selected in the Large Team.


It is not often I will say I 100% deserve something, but Scott & I thoroughly deserve to run individuals. I don’t even need to start to justify it, but his results this year would do that easily.


I am yet to find anyone who supports the management decision except those who obviously benefited, again I stress I have no personal problem with them (I like and support everyone on the team) it is the fact I deserved my shot at Individuals as well as team.


That said... I will get over that, and I will be proud to stand alongside Anthony Clarke & Dave Leach as the other members of the Large Dog Team at the World Championships 2011. What an honour and a privilege it will be to represent Great Britain. I am so thrilled that Scott has taken me to the most prestigious and biggest agility event in the world, what a fantastic dog he is.


Thank you for all the kind messages I received after qualification, means a lot.


A huge congratulations to every other member of team GB who qualified for France at all three heights, well done. Also to Natasha Wise who did a great job judging.


www.leegibsontraining.com