Thursday, 29 September 2011

Dutch Seminars & Shows in Belgium

Hello

Here is my new update!
Last Wednesday evening (21st) I set off along with Anthony Clarke and Sian Illingworth to drive up to Holland.

Anthony & Myself were due to give a 6 hour seminar on the Thursday, starting at 9am. For some reason we had decided it would be a good idea to drive over night, aiming to arrive around 2am.. However this was never a realistic target, and we actually arrived at 7am!!!

After a 1hour power nap, Ant & I got up and started the training sessions. We were at Carl De Rouck & Marielle Bugel’s training venue, which was lovely and also a little windy, which helped freshen us up a bit!

The day was focused on pull through and turns, handler positioning & timing and straight line selection. The handlers on the course were great and they worked very hard to improve on the areas we were focusing on. Also we managed to cope with the lack of sleep okay, we were very happy at the end of the day with how it had gone.
Here is one of my students vidoe from the day: (Click link to play)

On the Friday we did 2 sessions again, with different students. The weather was lovely for the two days and once training was finished, we drove south west back to Gent  in Belgium where were staying at the F1 hotel, ready for 2 shows that ran over the weekend.

The hotel was, shall we say basic. It was fairly cheap, but felt like more a offenders hostel than a hotel. It did the job though and we were fairly centrally placed for the two competitions.

Over the two shows we all had some fantastic results, between us gaining several wins, seconds & thirds. One of the wins was Scotty on the Sunday in Agility class 3. I was very happy with the results but more so the courses that we got were great preparation for the WC. Saturdays even had a table in it, and Sundays had the Frame tyre (the type that we don’t get in UK).
Here is a video of the best bits from all of our runs over the weekend: (Click link to play)
A big thank you to everyone who helped us organise the trip and was so nice to us whilst we were there, especially Birthe Verhaert who did a lot of organising for us.

On the evenings we went into Gent itself, which was a lovely city. We ate some lovely food and enjoyed the culture.

The drive back was long, I arrived back at home at 3am. On the Monday Greg, Anthony & Myself met up to train again for the Worlds. It was a good session but we did do some hard sequences. The weather this week has been very hot, so I am not doing to much with even my lessons, let a lone my own dogs.
This weekend is Chippingham show. I am going but not sure how much I will run with the WC so close, il only do the odd training round this weekend & maybe the Champ class.
News:
Well done to Jenny Goude for coming 2nd in the ProPlan final, and well done to Barry & Kip for coming 2nd in the Alpha Agility Final. Yet more great results from my students this year, I am very proud of you all. Well done.
Okay, work to do now. Speak soon.

Lee

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