Harpenden Games 2012

[English Bloke]

So the next morning we were up bright and early and went down to a sumptuous, full British brekkers which took about an hour and a half to finally get served. No complaints, my Sunday schedule is not their emergency... obviously, but it did set us back a bit in terms of timing. We eventually got all the Kids accoutrements and paraphernalia into the car and poddled off to the Main Event.

The Harpenden Highland Gathering 2012.


The 'Dogs and Ducks' Show was the first event we came to. (We were late for the opening ceremony and massed bands).


The show consisted of two highly trained Border Collies, one a sheep dog, in that he normally works with sheep and one a duck dog, in that she has duck round up, down to a tee. It was marvellous to see two wonderfully intelligent animals working the herd... gaggle... flock... waddling? What is the collective for ducks? These were Indian Runner Ducks and were mostly a kind of muddy brown colour, so perhaps in this case, it's a 'Khaki' of Ducks

Where was I? Oh yeah... so the dogs were awesome as was the running commentary given by the shepherd... (that's not the right word either... Duckerd?) At one point he told the dogs to lie still while he gave a brilliant description of the natural canine hunting instinct which is controlled by the 'alpha male' (man) to get the dogs to work the herd, rather than devour it. Unfortunately this doggie pause resulted in a momentary lapse of duck control and in less than a couple of seconds they were out of the arena and off round the park. Hugely amusing to see Bloke chasing ducks through the trees and bushes while dogs obediently sat in the middle of the Arena, watching the spectacle unfold and waiting for the command "Fetch" or "Seize" or "Kill" or whatever it is you are supposed to shout at duck-dogs when the 'waddle' is a'waddling. I could almost hear them laughing at him. Once the ducks were back in the paddock, as it were, if dogs could talk they'd be saying something like.
“Would you like us to look after this lot now? 'Cause alpha male or not, you're clearly useless at it.”
Once the intricacies of Man-Dog comms were sorted out though, it was staggering to see the two of them reacting instantly to single word commands as well as unspoken shoulder dips and other physical gestures. Don't wish to make light of the man really but it was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. He does have some incredibly well trained animals though. The ducks on the other hand...

As this unfolded...


Our mate Sue (Kineticat) was mixing it with the big boys in the 'chucking stones about' section. She did extremely well it must be said and came FIRST in all the Ladies events.


I did have what I thought were cracking action shots of Sue doing her thing but unfortunately my happy-snaps camera and (dare I say) iffy light only produced vaguely blue blurs. (Sorry Sue)

My daughter was soon bored with the “Cummon darlin', lets watch these people chuck heavy stuff about” tactic and insisted she have a go on the Climbing Wall.


Here she is, helmeted, harnessed and waiting with summer dress loin-clothed to protect her modesty. Not that SHE was bothered.


Assaulting the North Face...


I believe this is called 'Fear'... sorry 'No Fear'.