Lee Gibson Training

Thursday, 3 February 2011

This weekend

Am looking forward to visiting the Isle of Man again this weekend. It was back in 2009 I was last there, so it will be good to see everyone again and work on some more training ideas.

The UK weather is cold and wet.. it is a shock to the system from South Africa!

Lee

http://www.leegibsontraining.com/

Monday, 31 January 2011

Update

Sunday I did my first training session back in the UK. I was down in Hereford doing two training sessions, on for 6&7 grades, and another for 3-5.

We did several exercises working on tight turns and telling the dog early to make them prepare for the correct type of turn.

At the end of each session we did a course which included elements from what we had been doing during the workshop.

Next weekend I am flying again, this time a lot shorter than the 12 hours to SA. In fact this time is less than an hour, to the Isle Of Man for a training weekend. (Depart Friday eve, return Sunday eve)

Order the LGT Workshop DVD from http://www.leegibsontraining.com/

Lee

Friday, 28 January 2011

Soccer City & Safari - My last days in SA.

Heya,

Well as you all know I am back from South Africa now, but just to fill in on the last few days of my trip.

Jason & Nicki took me to see Soccer City (The world cup final stadium) on Sunday, and on the Monday I left at 3.30am with Gaby, Andy & Liz for a 6 hour drive East of Johannesburg to the lodge in a part of the Kruger Park.

The lodge itself has all the facilities of a modern house, but step outside, and you could meet ANY of the animals that roam around. We only had monkeys come visit us at the house, but Gaby told me of times they had Elephants & even Hyena’s right outside.

We saw many animals over the two days, and on the Tuesday we managed to see the Elephants and Lions. The Elephants were on an island across from us, and one in particular took exception to us and decided to cross the river just to see us off. I was driving at the time, and shall we say, confident quick reversing skills were very useful!

In the park we hardly saw anyone else. But there are rangers who keep watch and take some private tours. We had our own Land Rover and used Andy & Gaby’s knowledge of where they had seen animals before to find them.

However it was the rangers over the walky-talky on the last night who radioed in a sighting of the pride of lions near the rail tracks. We had been on the hunt for them all day, and one sighting had proved to be a wild goose chase, but we eventually found them!

There were a male, female and about 10 cubs / small lions. The pictures are not great below, but I got a fantastic video, which I will upload soon.

It was a super end to a fantastic time in South Africa. I can’t explain enough how much I enjoyed meeting everyone from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth & Johannesburg. I have made friends for life and really hope to be back soon!

My extended thanks to everyone who made the whole training events possible and the experiences I had which I will never forget. Thanks to everyone on the seminars, and well done for knuckling down and trying out the skills I did my best to help & teach you. It was my pleasure. Good luck.

For each area I have been, we are doing a group DVD order. The DVD can be ordered from http://www.leegibsontraining.com/ or through the contact in your respective area.

Lee

Soccer City & Safari

Soccer City - Jo'burg

Craft shop on the way to Krugar

The railway runs through the area near the lodge, servicing a mine. The animals often come to the railway at night due to the warmth of the tracks from the sun.

I was driving the Land Rover!

Sun down, at one of the water holes. In fact, we had a water hole of our own!

This one Elephant (the one on the left) was in a bad mood

He crossed the river (away from his friend) just to chase us off. We were not staying around to wait and meet him though!

Lion Pics, we found a pride of lions by the railway tracks on the last night. It was fab. The pics didnt come out too well, but I have a super video of the whole pride.

Thursday, 27 January 2011

South Africa Update Jan 27th

Heya,

Just an update I am back from South Africa safe and sound. I am struggling tonight to stay awake as the whole last 24hours catches up, and also I am getting used to the normal UK temperature again!

I will upload some safari pictures in the next few days.

The Safari was just amazing, and I will go into more detail soon, tonight I am just shattered!

I should have answered everyone’s email too. Apologies about the delay and short replies, but I have had just a ridiculous inbox to work through.

Speak again soon.

Lee

http://www.leegibsontraining.com/

Sunday, 23 January 2011

South Africa Update 23rd Jan

Hello,

Well it’s been a while hasnt it?! Thanks for the texts I received keeping me updated and thanks for the ones asking where/what I was at! I have internet for a day today, so here is a big catch up! Tomorrow I go to the Lodge (Safari) and then straight to the airport Wednesday, ready to return home on Thursday morning. This will be my last post before returning to the UK when il report about the Safari.

Well it’s all fine. It’s more than fine, its super. South Africa is a brilliant place with super people and stunning surroundings. I cant believe I have been here since the 4th Jan for all this time.

Since my last update before I left Cape Town:

I spent the last day in Cape Town relaxing and seeing some of the scenery before then flying early to Port Elizabeth. I was lucky that it had been arranged for me to Visit an Elephant park which was great fun. From there I went to Nelisia’s House where I was staying for the weekend and who was my contact in Port Elizabeth.

I had the same group over the weekend and & did sessions on Foundation, Contacts, Weaves, Turns & Handling, Obstacle Discrimination & Course Analysis. The training was intense but fun, by the end of it I was happy that the handlers had lots of information that they could use for a long time to come.

One factor that was hard was the wind. Port Elizabeth is known as the windy city, and it sure was. It was so windy that we had to stake most of the equipment with metal stakes.

Another strange incident was the fire. Yes we had a grass/tree fire right next to our training venue. The Electric substation literally blew up Sunday (it was painfully loud too) and caused a fire which you can see from the pictures below the fire brigade had to put out!

Sunday afternoon I watched Liverpool V Everton in a local bar, I was the only Everton supporter and went crazy when we went 2-1 up! Brilliant stuff.

Monday I flew to Johannesburg. I am staying with Jason & Nicki (who are both great) The climate here is more balanced shall we say. It is humid and hot (too humid at times!) but then it will rain also. We have had a heavy storm Thursday night. Made England’s storms look tame, this was epic!

We had seminars with different themes all week, and also private lessons. I was up at 6.30am every day and we started at 8am. The longest day was Wednesday when we had a judges course in the evening. I was lucky to be asked to give a talk/advice to SA judges. I told them about course design, judging & some of my experiences. I am sure they found it useful.

The pictures below show a little bit of the training, and also the night show which I judged Friday. It was a FCI show, registered etc. I judged Class 12&3 Jumping & Agility SML. We started at 6pm and done by 10pm. It gives you an idea of the numbers of competitors, it really isn’t that many. But i enjoyed my evening and everyone was very welcoming.

Once I had completed the week, I was done as far as agility was concerned. My seminars in SA are now all complete. Amazing really, but it has been a privilege to teach here. Saturday we went to Sun City, a huge water park a couple of hours outside Jo’burg. It was a fantastic day out, although I now have a map of Europe on my back according to Jason(!) where I missed with my sun screen!

So from now on I probably won’t have internet until I get home, although Wednesday I will possibly before the flight. Monday I leave for 2 nights in the Bush at the lodge. It should be amazing and hopefully see lots of wild animals, including the big 5!

Anyone who has sent emails and has yet to have a reply, I apologise but will most probably catch up when I am back in England. Any DVD orders outstanding will be shipped a few days after I am back. Remember that in each province we are going to ship a group order.

For now, goodbye.

Speak soon

Lee

www.leegibsontraining.com