December 30, 2011: Year End.

I've not been a good blogger of late. I'm blaming a bad cold for the latest 'blog holiday.' Knocked me right off my feet a week before Christmas and today is my first day back 'running.' I hesitate to call it running when I only managed to shuffle two loops of our hayfields. The dogs didn't seem to care, so long as they got to run like the wind.

Lying on the sofa one day, in utter boredom - I might add, I had time to reflect back on the year. I sure had fun on the trial fields!!! We came to the UK to have fun competing with our dogs and by golly we are having more fun than we ever imagined possible.

This year I had seven dogs competing at various stages....and all seven made it into the prize list. We never won anything big or prestigious, and I might be writing the same thing every year henceforth, but we had our own little victories worthy of celebrating in their own rights.

Some highlights were:
- 'little' 20 month old 'rookie' Penny winning her first Open trial at Libanus (thank you Kevin Evans for hosting the trial and not running yourself!);
- Bee's 96 out of 100 point win in Scotland - oh boy did she run well that day. Bee went on to run in the 2011 World Trial with Jennifer L'Arrivee from Canada. They made a good team...but no, Jen was not allowed to take Bee home with her;
- nursery dog, Kobe, winning an Open South Wales style trial (everyone knows how bad I am at South Wales style trialling...so that tells you something about just how good Kobe was that day!). Kobe ran in the nurseries and placed in every single competition. He finished 10th in the South Wales Nursery Final and 10th in the Welsh Nursery Final;
- and the highlight(s) of the year...finishing my very first international shed (!) and placing 5th at the Selattyn Championship Final (an improvement from 12th the year before) with my beloved Meg. Oh hang on....maybe it was me and Meg representing Wales for the very first (and hopefully not the only) time at the World Trial. Super proud to be representing Wales and relieved we didn't totally disgrace ourselves. (...weird that we now own green and red vehicles, the colours of Wales!). Meg continues to be my pride and joy, and one day, before she gets too old (or I do!), I hope to have learnt how to handle her. She still is so patient with her handler!

Not to be outdone, Kelvin's Blade got his very first Open trial win...at 7 years of age. An old dog can learn new tricks! Blade has had somewhat of a renaissance in his trialling career, thanks in large part to Alistair Gilchrist who gave Kelvin some veterinary advice for Blade. Thank you Alistair.

Jamie, Keeper and Sioux also made the prize list but the lowlights of the year were losing Sioux and Jamie to injuries. Jamie was subsequently retired from trialling and Sioux has had surgery and is currently in rehab and hopefully will be trialling again in 2012. Fingers crossed!

To the people who helped, supported, criticized (constructively!), and inspired me this year - including Bobby, Kevin, Nigel, Aled, Gwyn, Alun, Richard, Scott - a big THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart! A special thank you to an unnamed angel who didn't give us wings but gave us wheels and something far more important, hope. ...so we'll see you all again on the trial fields in 2012. Next year will be my 5th year trialling, and Kelvin's 6th. I can no longer call myself a beginner...so I'm going to call myself a 'pronovice' - professional novice! :-)

Happy New Year. May you be blessed with good health, good dogs, good sheep and fair competition. To the friends (canine and human) we lost in 2011, we miss you...God bless.