June & July 2012

Wednesday 18th July

Yet another wet show day for the Southern ESS Open Show last weekend for judge, Jack Elliot (Jonabar). We had entered only the youngsters. Rafferty won his Puppy Dog Class and Willow won the Puppy Bitch Class. Rafferty was declared BEST PUPPY IN SHOW ultimately. Lovely day and as usual, Rafferty had simply the best time!

Wednesday 11th July

East of England turned out to be another wet and muddy affair. Dick Pattenden was the judge for the day. Dave took three of our dogs for his opinion. Rafferty won Puppy Dog, Kye second in Limit Dog and Lila also second in Limit Bitch. Rafferty finished the day as Best Puppy In Breed so not a bad day all in all. A good day was had by Seamus sons winning three of the dog classes. A very special congratulations from us both to Wendy and Steve on Mac's third and crowning CC on the day. So very pleased for you :o) Seamus' first title holder in the UK - fantastic!

I went to Sweden where the annual Springer Club Show was yet another wet and sodden day. Still the weather did not get in the way of anything - such a lovely venue too. Great to see some friends and their lovely dogs again. Judges were Diane Scott (bitches) and Trudy Topliss (dogs). A few photos below but as I stood watching the males they are very much biased towards the boys I'm afraid. Just click on the images to enlarge ...

Tuesday 3rd July

Well sadly Blackpool never materialised! Such a shame that the weather spoils these events so often. Unbelievable how much rain and wind we have to endure during our summer months. Has there been a dry show yet this year? If so it is in the dim and distant past :o( Our little cake celebration for Seamus' BIS was spoiled too but postponed for another day we hope.

First some overseas news that Kitkat (Peasblossom Eternity) had a super day at Sabro, in Denmark finishing BIS 4 under judge, Amanda Orchard. No show pics, but a couple of super shots of her at home added to Gallery in the main menu.

We have been to Windsor Champ Show since our last update, entering only our three youngsters. The judge was David Moss. Rafferty finished first (of one :( ) in Puppy Dog, Luca second in Junior Dog and Willow 4th in Puppy Bitch. Others of our breeding faired a little better however, with Lois - Peasblossom Just One Look at Beresford finishing first in PB and overall Best Puppy In Breed! So we said goodbye and good luck to Lois as she left us after the show for her new home with the Beresfords. A new page will be set up for her in due course, but a good start to her show career! 'Brodie'- Peasblossom Geisha at Meonstoke won the Post Grad Bitch class and finished Best Bitch overall. Well done Kathy and Brodie on a lovely win!!

Luca, Rafferty and Willow were also entered in the Stakes classes making a much better job of them than their breed classes. Luca won the Junior Dog Stakes challenging the winner of the Junior Bitch stakes and being declared Best Overall on the day. Judge was Peter Jolley. Willow was placed second in a huge Puppy Bitch stakes by judge Gordon Haran who also found in Rafferty his winner of the Puppy Dog Stakes. Rafferty was the overall winner on the day and had to return on the Sunday to compete against the other Puppy Stakes winners ... but we didn't win :( Never mind ... we are in luuurve with him just the same.

Okay so off to East of England on Saturday ... wonder if we can dare to hope for good weather? Still, I am off to Sweden, yahoooo, to see the Club Show where there is a huge entry of 160 springers. I am so excited although I have heard that I will need to pack wellies for that too. What is going on??

Tuesday 19th June

A little while without updates as time, as ever, has been at a premium! Weather seriously cannot realise that we are in June now and has been wet, windy and generally awful. We missed the Northern Champ Show this time due to dog sitting issues and the fact that Dave jetted off to Finland to judge at their annual Spaniel Specialty. He had a super time there although he was dismal at taking photos. There were four photographs on his camera when he got home and two of those were of the view! sigh.....!

Thursday 7th June

On Friday 1st June we went to Southern Counties. Suffice to say, it ended up being the most fantastic show ever for us. It is fair to say that Seamus has given us some
wonderful showing moments, has achieved everything and more than we ever hoped but is still able to take our breath away in the most incredible way! The Breed judge was Hans Lehtinen from Finland. We entered four dogs and won all of our classes ... Rafferty winning Minor Puppy Dog, Luca - Junior Dog, Seamus - Open Dog and Willow, Minor Puppy Bitch. Brodie (P Geisha at Meonstoke) also won the Post Grad Bitch class! Really lovely when Seamus was awarded the DCC, his 20th and BOB not to mention Willow who finished Best Puppy In Breed! The Group judge, also from Finland, was Rainer Vuorinen awarded Seamus Group 1 - we went home very happily!!!

Back we went on Sunday for the Best In Show judging ... sadly Dave had to work so Seamus and I went alone. The weather was the pits ... cold and very, very wet. My worst nightmare in fact. Poor Seamus was allowed 10 seconds down on the ground all day and sat on a grooming table for hours with me rubbing his body and legs to keep his muscles warm rather than let him down on the ground where he would have been soaked in seconds. We were first to go - I was amazed that Seamus moved so well considering everything but he didn't let me down :o) I was stunned when the BIS judge, Zena Thorn-Andrews called for Seamus to come forward to the Best In Show spot. BEST IN SHOW!!!!

I sent a text to Helene letting her know the fantastic news ... but she didn't believe me and had to go and look on Fosse for herself :o)))) Wish you had been there xxx

Thank you to the few springer people who cheered and supported .... so nice to see some familiar faces at times like this and thanks too for all the messages, cards and emails that have flooded in. It is hard to contain myself in reality but much easier of course, in print! But BEST IN SHOW!!! Just so fantastic, words are not really enough to describe just how proud of him we are. Such a special, special boy. Below are some photos taken on the day by Carol Ann Johnson - click to enlarge.