Carnage at the Polo!



Charlie and his girlfriend Kelsae

So yesterday was the Lettergold  Newmarket Festival  Polo Match and Dog show at Suffolk Polo Club, it turned out to be quite a day!

We started with our show day bath which Charlie is getting quite good at, although he did try to eat the towel afterwards! I even remembered to shut the door so he couldn’t run outside and get filthy again. We had lots of things to take up to the event so Charlie had to sit on the front seat for the journey, not a problem since he was so lovely and clean. So far so good, when I got out so that I could unload the car I even remembered to zip up the bag with his treats in it so he didn’t eat them all.

What I hadn’t anticipated was that as soon as I opened the boot of my hatchback Charlie would leap over the two sets of seats, over all of the crockery in my boot and straight out, galloping across the polo pitch before I could do anything! Charlie is not allowed off the lead at the polo club, he knows his way around too well and always runs off, sometimes for hours at a time. Once running free Charlie found his friend Pip, the resident Jack Russell and partner in Crime for the most nail biting of runaway escapades – more details in a post to come. Pip and Charlie love to play together and were rough and tumbling across the grass in the rain getting filthy. Luckily Pip is easily swayed by treats so I was able to capture Charlie by luring in Pip but was now left with a wet muddy dog who would not be allowed on the front seats of my car and a boot full of Crockery still to unload. The only answer was that Charlie would have to be tied to the clubhouse bus where he could keep dry and I could still see him while we got set up. He wasn’t overly amused at this idea so barked constantly for the half hour it took us to get everything out, much to everyones pleasure; for a little dog he has a very big bark!

Kelsae the Champion

The dog show was sponsored by AshTree Vets in Kennett; We entered the ‘Best Condition’ Class and Charlie actually behaved (ish) we even got second prize! The next class was an Obedience Class, why on earth would I enter that you say – well at one point no one else was going in so I thought I might manage to win by default! Alas no, I was beaten by Charlies new girlfriend Kelsae. All Charlie needed to do was a sit – check! A down – Check! And a retrieve – not check! Charlie just doesn’t have the retrieve instinct in him, Plus Charlie barked through the whole class because I ran out of treats and couldn’t keep him quiet! Losing to Kelsae wasn’t too bad though, she did win Judges favourite for the whole day so at least we were beaten by a Champion!

There was also a fun agility course set up which we of course had to have a go at – on the lead of course! Unfortunately our time ended up being three times the winner, possibly because Charlie decided he needed a poo half way around! But before we could even get onto the course another dog started snapping at him, got tangled in his lead and somehow managed to unclip Charlie setting him loose on a full tea tent, a dog show and two  bouncy castles with kids everywhere. Queue me running across the grounds hollering “CHARLIE!” like a banshee as he hot-footed through everyone, practically skipping at the excitement of finally being free. Luckily the day was saved by one of our vets Bill grabbing him after he took himself into the ring to say hello to all of the competitors.  I think I must have had quite a red face as I retrieved my runaway Beagle from the judge in the show ring, but at least he was back. Charlie wasn’t quite done though; as we walked past the bouncy castle he stole one of the kids wellies, I didn’t even notice and had to be chased down by the parent to get it back!

Overall quite an eventful day, but we did get a rosette and he slept very, very well last night.