NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
In last week’s notes, I briefly mentioned the 40th Anniversary YKC celebration lunch at the RKC and Plymouth Open show and the owners and Buhunds attending..
Now below Jacqui Walmsley tells in details of what she calls her Epic Weekend, Frostisen on Tour.
‘When I have painstakingly planned an epic weekend, you can always guarantee something will go wrong! The plan was a lovely, chilled weekend for the Frostisen Girls, Myself and Emma (AddrienneFrost- Treadwell). A trip to London for the 40th Anniversary YKC Lunch, and then a little Open Show. The best laid plans of mice and men! Thursday, road closure on the way to the airport to pick up Emma who lives in Eire with a 30minute diversion. I arrived at the Airport as Emma landed, bit of a mystery tour, as Bristol Airport is now twice the size it was a year ago! Steady trip home, pulled into McDonalds they locked the door as we approached. Finally, back to my place at 10. 30pm.My girls, Bunny and Birdie thought all their Christmases had come at once, not only was Mummy home, but Auntie Emma had arrived. (Who am I kidding, I might as well of not been there! Little Turncoats). Friday, up early, on the train to London, wonderful time at the Royal Kennel Club. Lovley to meet friends, old and new. Amazing lunch and fun quiz. We sat with Jenny Shorer-Wheeler, Marina White and Min Wethyman. Came second in the Quiz, or should I say Jenny came second in the Quiz! Sat in the bar drinking champagne and reminiscing and looking at photos of us taken 30, or in my case 40yrs ago. Grabbed a taxi back to Waterloo. This is when it all took a turn for the worse. There had been a ‘Incident’ on the line. They had shut off all power to the tracks, then when they went to turn it back on the computer said ‘No’. On arrival at Waterloo, we found our train had been cancelled, as had nearly every other train. No trains left for over 4hours, there had to be 5 thousand people stranded! There was one way in, all other entrances were exit only, and no tube trains were stopping, it was mayhem. Now, as we had been going to the RKC I had worn heels, never again! I took them off after an hour, walked around in bare feet for 2 hours, then bought myself a new pair of slippers. So, I’m all dressed up for a lovely day in Mayfair, and now I’m wearing slipper boots. At 8pm we met up with Marina, who was trying to get back to Bournemouth. We checked with information and were told we wouldn’t be getting out of London that night. We had no choice but to get a taxi. Off the 3 of us toddle into a Black Cab,2 hours and £270 later we arrived in Basingstoke, Marina decided to stay in a hotel overnight, and travel on in the morning. After dropping her off, and ensuring she was safe, we continued for a further 5 minutes where the cavalry was waiting for us. Huge, monumentally huge thanks to Ann-marie Taulor who once again came to our rescue. (My car broke down a few weeks ago and Ann-marie came to my rescue. We sat on the roadside for 4hours waiting for recovery, but that is another story) Ann-marie did a 153 round trip to collect us and take us home. We finally walked through the door at 1 am. A quick cup of tea and bed. Saturday, up at 5.30am to head off to Plymouth Open Show. Just Birdie and Penny entered as Bunny has had yet another small lump removed. Penny was delivered at 6.30am by Mary Taylor, along with bacon sandwiches. At Frostisen we really do have the best owners. As we had Emma with us it seemed rude not to let her take the girls in. Birdie was 2nd to Mary and Coralie Dosson’s Barnaby, Penny won Open and BOB with Mary and David Dosson’s Teddy taking 2nd and RBOB. Our judge was Carol Cavanagh, Plymouth are kind enough to put breed classes for us, so we always try to support them. Then the fun started. We decided to enter the handling classes! For those who do not know, both Emma and I were pretty good junior handlers. I won the Working Group (before it was split into Working and Pastoral) JHA Semi Final at Richmond in 1982, getting through to the final 6 at the final. Emma was the first YKC Handler of the Year in 1992.I now run the Adult Handling Association. We were both in the 3rd age group 46-59yrs not quite the vintage class, but I am pretty close! Emma handled Leon our friend’s WSSD, and I took Penny. Emma won the class, and I took third. The judge was Naomi Cowley, who said we were all brilliant, and that she had not seen such straight lines in years. She especially liked it when I looked down at her feet, (it’s a handling thing!), and said ‘come on Penny, we are going this way’. There is video evidence oof this, but I will not be entering more handling classes any time soon, (yes Jacqui I have seen the video). To finish off the day, Birdie took 7th in a large Graduate Stakes winning a lovely blue rosette for her wall, again under Naomi Cowley. Sunday, we dragged ourselves out of bed at 10am! We were both rather broken. Early mornings, late nights, high heels, champagne, no trains, storm Amy, running round rings! I dropped Emma back to the airport at 2.30pm for her 4.30pm flight, I arrived home at 4pm and at 7.30pm Emma called to say she was safely home. Despite the catalogue of errors it had been an amazing weekend, anytime we get to spend together is so worth it. I went to bed with Bunny and Birdie still watching the door expecting Emma to walk through it! Thank you Jacqui a great read
On Saturday the 11th of Oct Buhunds and their owners headed to Royal Welsh Showground Builth Wells for Pastoral /Working day at South Wales Kennel Association Ch show, the weather was much quieter than the previous weekend in fact some areas had fog. The show has moved around since I came into the breed, it was a summer show then held in July at the David Broome Event Centre in Chepstow and usually had a good Buhund entry. When the centre was upgraded the show moved to fields off the M4 for a few years, but these tended to flood, I judged one year with many of the rings partly underwater. The following year sudden flooding meant the show at very short notice had to be transferred to the Newbury show ground. The committee were allowed by the KC to move the show at Builth the following year, but the only available date was in October. No CCs in the middle of Wales in October is probably not the most popular show for Buhund owners now, but those that supported the breed this year certainly made their presence felt. The breed judge was Tan Nagrecha best known for his St Bernards and now Parson Jack Russell’s, he was also judging all the puppy groups and gives CCs in 24 breeds and judged the Working Group at Crufts last year, he is a level 2 judge for Buhunds .He found his BD & BOB in Millie Lambert’s homebred Sturtmoor’s Gon’n Dun It JW (Gunna). RBD was Nancy Kent and Jacque & Michael Cobb’s homebred Knytshall Ragged Robin (Rowdy).BB was Rowdy’s litter sister Ollie Wheeler’s Knytshall Thistle Ink It Up JW (Inky).Not content with BOB Gunna was also 2nd in the Yearling Stakes under Stuart Plane winning £15 prize money, and at the end of the day he was shortlisted in the last 9 in the Pastoral Group under Chris Chapman .SWKA have a nice touch giving a certificate to shortlisted dogs. Jenny Shorer -Weeler handled Nancy, Jacqui and Michael’s Ch Koromandel Best Served Cold at Knytshall to a win in the Veteran Stakes and £20 prize money under David Guy and last but not least Rowdy was 4th in the KC Good Citizen Dog Scheme Stakes under Caroline Friend -Rees winning £!0, so definitely a good day for the breed and worth the trip for the owners.
Margaret Deuchar margaretdeuchar@gmail.com
Any views expressed in Margaret’s Breed Notes are hers and hers alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Norwegian Buhund Club of the UK