The West Show

We spent Saturday and Sunday at the West Show. Its an outdoor country show, that basically celebrates the agricultural life of Jersey. We were doing an agility display, but it was great to spend time looking at everything else whilst we were there. It was also a really good socialisation experience for Mannix, as there were tractors, shooting, loud music and generally quite a lot of noise!! Luckily he seems pretty bomb proof and wasn't fazed by one single minute of it, not even when the crowds were really big! Fingers crossed he stays this way, as I love have confident dogs! Whilst we were setting up for our display Smudge and Mannix were tied at the side of the ring, and seemed to attract groups of children. Another good experience for him! Smudge loved it too - he has always loved children.

Paul got to drive round in one of the military vehicles on Saturday as they were short of drivers (he is such a child at heart!)

There were two main arena events over the weekend. The first was the Rockwood Dog Display team, who did obedience, flyball, 'agility', and freestyle demonstrations. I have to say I really wasn't sure about this, I'm reserving judgement!! The hoops you can see below were on fire, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to send my dogs through there - even if they were trained for it!! They also had a dog doing a fire retrieve (basically through a hoop of fire, picking up a dumbell on fire) which the poor dog just wouldn't do. I think its great that they are trying to encourage people to do different activities with their dogs, but it just didn't appeal to me as a display. And I was really disappointed to see at least one dog wearing what looked like a choke chain to me. Having said that, the flyball and freestyle were real crowd pleasers, and I hope it does encourage people to go have fun with their dogs!

However, for me the highlight of the weekend was The Rockin Horse Stunt Riders. This was such a fantastic display, not only of horsemanship but also a demonstration of the bond humans and animals can have. The riders were obviously experts as what they did, but the bond between each rider and horse was obvious. Each time the riders came close to the cheering crowd, they shouted 'its for the horses, we couldn't do it without them!' which I though was really lovely. The horses health and wellbeing clearly came first. As well as the actual riding, the performance was also very strong visually (as an ex performing arts student I notice these things!) It was very 'Matrix' like in theme, with modern music and was structured in a way that kept you watching to the very end. It would have appealed to a much wider audience than a lot of other horse acts. We saw the performance three times over the weekend, and each was really well done. If ever you get the chance to go and see them, make sure you do! http://www.rockinhorseproductions.co.uk/.