Easter 'Egg'gility at SRC

As I mentioned before, our house is basically across the street from the Solihull Riding Club. The club is situated on 220 acres and has its own cross-country course and multiple indoor arenas. From what I can tell, people do not actually keep their horses there... they just belong to the club and bring their horses there to ride. There are horse trailers going up and down the main street by our house all day long. The club is a major competition centre and hosts all sorts of dressage, eventing, and show jumping competitions. Besides all this, SRC also hosts canine related events. Clearly, it's a happening place. This past four-day weekend it was the site of the annual Bretford Dog Agility Show - also known as "Easter 'Egg'gility". Awesome.

The weather was perfect (as I have mentioned once or twice before heh heh) so Jeff and I walked over to check it out. Did Sascha and Plato accompany us? Hell no. I had never been to an agility competition before, but I have to say it had much the same atmosphere as a horse show, i.e. overflowing with crazy people. Crazy, CA-RAY-ZEE dog people. And the dogs... equally crazy. Before this, I always kinda thought agility was just for unusually smart dogs, but it turns out it is a sport more suited for INSANE smart dogs. I mean, I tend to think Sascha is pretty dang smart (it's not just me, I think some of you agree, right?). Smart enough and biddable enough to take through an agility course. But there is absolutely nothing in the world that could induce her to move at a speed faster than a leisurely jog. Zero competitive edge. Competitive is an understatement - these dogs were RABID. Like gladiators or something. They wait on the perimeter of the course, actually watching the competition, getting progressively more amped up, and chewing maniacally on a kong-type toy on a rope that every trainer seemed to have. At the starting line, the dogs quiver at the effort of remaining still. Then, they explode. The bossy ones bark the entire way through the course. The crazy ones only listen when the trainer literally screams directions. The super excited ones take off about 4 feet before each jump, barely making it. After 3 faults, the dog and trainer have to leave the course, but the dogs often continue racing around and over jumps at random... confused at the sudden lack of direction. Overall, really fascinating to watch and a little frightening... I mean, can you imagine living with one of those dogs??

Of course, some dogs don't take it all so seriously. There were some joggers. Some that took a few jumps as required and then decided "wheeeee... I'm going to sniff some grass over there now... see ya!!"

I managed to snap a few shots, although looking back I seem to have only gotten the, ahem, slightly slower fellas. Oh well, you get the idea.

In my mind, the only thing that was lacking was that I wish the trainers wore skirt suits and nude hose like the handlers at dog shows.