Rosettes and Butterflies

It's been a busy wee day! To start with we went to Muirfield Riding Therapys doggy fun show (the first of hopefully many this year). We put Missy in for Veteran (8+), Best Rescue and Fancy Dress. I'll tell you now, I did not envy the judges at all - all of the dogs were absolutely gorgeous. Missy made some new friends, including Wilson who was a fellow competitor for Veteran:

Neither of them placed, but we had a laugh waiting on the judges. They did take it very seriously, asking about breed, age, health and so on! It's the first dog show I've done whicj was indoors and, whilst the sun was out, it was very chilly, so we were glad of the roof and, even better, the heating in the viewing gallery. There was tea and bacon rolls to buy, as well as some stalls selling nice doggy bits (Missy fleeced the lady selling liver treats out of most of her free samples). 

Then came Best Rescue. Whilst I always maintain that I honestly don't mind if we win or not, deep down of course you think your dog is the best. And this is was gonna be another hard one for the judges as I eavesdropped on the sob stories. I kept my rapport with them short and sweet, she was a stray, we're not entirely sure who chose who, she really just wants cuddles and calm and a full belly, so much so, we've been doing carehome visits with Pets as Therapy. Well, I like to think I sold her well, but truth be told, Missy did her best flirting with the judges and lo and behold, we placed first.

After that, we had two categories before fancy dress and found ourselves chatting to the other "champions" who were waiting in the last category, the champion of champions. We found ourselves in good company as we alll fawned over each others dogs and wished them well at the end.

Of course we never won fancy dress, that was always going to go to the kids, but I was floored by the creativity of the costumes. We had Beauty and the Beast (a Vizla), a collie surfer dog complete with cardboard surfboard and baby shark plushie and the winner:

A pony! For a competition held by a riding school, it was absolute genius. 

Next year though, I may have to "borrow" a niece or nephew. 

Then it was champion of champions, which went to a family with spaniels and then we were done for the day. Our friends had recommended Archerfield Walled Garden to us the previous week, so we drove over and decided to stretch legs there rather than bother the ponies in thier paddocks. 

There was a labyrinth, a willow tree walk and a fairy walk. We mooched about for an hour or so and then headed back home.

A busy day, but very good fun!