News
Autumn/Winter 2004
Editor’s Note
First and foremost my sincerest apologies for the significant lack of Newsletters during 2004. For those of you who know me you will understand that the arrival of my first born in February and the imminent arrival of her brother early in 2005 has pretty much taken over my life. Something had to give and unfortunately it was my secretarial duties to Horsham Newfs and the Newsletter. Well here at long last is a bumper edition wrapping up 2004.
As for the 2005 editions I have a couple of suggestions:
- Send your articles AND PHOTOGRAPHS to news@horshamnewfs.com and I will post your entries to the website.
- Alternatively if there is somebody amongst you who wishes to take over publishing responsibility, I will be happy to hand over the reins.
I hope you find this edition full of fun, it covers pretty much our entire social calendar for the year gone by.
Georgia Leybourne
The Cuckfield Fair – Bank Holiday Weekend
May, 2004
Quiet and dull are certainly not two adjectives that could be used to describe weekends away with Horsham Newfs, and this one was no exception.
We had been asked to attend the Cuckfield Fair on Bank Holiday Monday and decided to make a weekend of it, training at sea on Saturday, carting practice on Sunday, and the show on Monday. Thanks must go to Wendy and Keri for getting us a last minute booking at the Bat and Ball, and to the Bat and Ball for agreeing to take us. Caravans, tents and a horsebox turned up on Friday and pitched around the club gazebo, wagon-train style, and the festivities began!
Having been away with the group a couple of times previously, I was semi-prepared, but I’m not sure our new members were so fortunate. However, following plenty of good food and fine wine, they were soon treated to the unique style of Horsham Newfs’ evening entertainment. Wendy, our trainer – in –residence, treated us to a display of Panda’s obedience, resulting in Ange demonstrating a novel way of leaving the table! Now, as this newsletter is published before the watershed, for family viewing, I’ll just say that Wendy got happier as the evening went on ( as did the rest of us ), and decided that she didn’t need all the clothing that she started with. All of you with children, I’m sure, have watched the ugly sisters trying in vain to force their feet into Cinderella’s delicate glass slipper. Well it was a similar scenario watching Keith trying to fit into Wendy’s bra! Finally after a fruitless search it was occupied by a couple of homeless Jaffa cakes and spent the rest of the night hanging from the awning….. which leads onto another story of another night ……..Our chairman also had his share of mishaps, somehow losing his footing and ending up in a rubbish sack one night, and let’s just say that his scotch wasn’t the only thing “on the rocks “ this weekend!
On Saturday after a leisurely start, we loaded up dogs and humans and set off for Shoreham for our water training session. We had a window either side of high tide and arrived at 4 o’clock, donned wet suits and prepared for our swim. We had assured those members who had not trained at sea before that it was great fun, and the dogs were eager to get started. We had had our safety briefing and were clear on the do’s and don’ts of working at sea as it is a very different environment from the enclosed lake at Soutwater. Apart from waves, tides and currents, the more powerful engine means the boat is a lot faster ……or not!!! We were about to learn that when a spinning prop engages rocks on the sea bed, something has to give! Still, undaunted, we took it in turns to row and our dogs got the swim they were so keenly anticipating. They all worked really well and didn’t seem to notice that their humans were, for once, working as hard as they were.
Sunday was a relaxing day ( if you ignore thunderstorms, torrential
rain and lorries catching fire ) and we enjoyed lunch at the pub followed
by several rehearsals for the carting demo at the forthcoming show.
Monday dawned bright and clear, and we loaded dogs into vehicles and equipment
into the lorry and set off for Cuckfield. This was our first visit to this
show and I think everyone agreed that it was an unqualified success. We set
up the gazebo, which was a blessing for the shade it offered, a grooming table
and an updated picture board that Angie had put together; and with 20 dogs
ready and willing to make a fuss of anyone who ventured over, we were in business.
Cart rides proved popular and the dogs were in constant demand. Luckily we
had plenty of dogs able to work and so they could all take regular breaks.
The
show was very busy and the dogs found themselves weaving through crowds
of people, ponies, gundogs and every variety of hound you could imagine.
Of course they took it all in their stride and made a lot of children
very happy. We had a short break at lunchtime and at 1:30pm we took the
dogs into the main ring to give a display. This comprised a mixture of
dogs with carts and dogs on leads being put through their paces, accompanied
by a very informative commentary by Georgia who explained all about the
dogs, their histories and abilities. At the end of the display the children
were invited to come into the arena to pet the dogs. Somebody described
the ensuing scene as a tidal wave of small people enveloping the dogs—not
that they minded a bit! We continued cart rides right up to the end of
the day and finally returned to the campsite in the early evening.
We were very pleased with the funds raised and extremely grateful to the show organisers who gave a further donation to the Hooli fund. The success of the day was a tribute to all the dogs and their handlers and all those members who put in a lot of hard work to plan and organise the day. It was also very nice to see our new members, Ben, Susie and Bronte being so involved. Well done to them.
All in all the weekend was a huge success, and as usual, very enjoyable. We had our usual mixture of incidents, planned and unplanned. We had fire and flood, falling short of a plague of locusts, although it could easily be argued that they couldn’t have done a better job at mealtimes! And so, homeward bound to rest, recover and prepare for the next one!
Sheelah Stevens
Shipley School Fete
19th June 2004
The day began earlier than usual. Mum and I got up and while mum had a cup of tea I ate breakfast. Dice had a lay-in (we have to make allowances for these senior citizens). I helped mum load the car with all the swimming gear and the cart, harness, camera – not forgetting the crappy scales!!! Dice began to stir by this time making very load yawns and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He then had a bite to eat and I cleaned his bowl afterwards to save mum having to wash it up.
Eventually
we set off to Southwater (not before time if you ask me). We had a great
swim in the morning and then all too soon it was back to the car while
everyone got changed. After a very long wait we set off to Shipley. My
friend, Freya, came with us because her mum couldn’t get their
car started!!! As usual we were the last to arrive. Once we were all
set up we then took turns in giving the children their rides. They love
us and if you haven’t done this before I can recommend having a
go. There are always plenty of sticky fingers to lick and occasionally
a sweetie in their little hands. Yum! Yum! We had been told it was going
to rain cats and dogs in the afternoon but it didn’t. Shame really,
I was looking forward to giving the cats some exercise.
Never mind we all had a great time and managed to raise £85.00 for the rides and £6.00 with the photo key-rings. I’m not sure but I think most of that was from our own group!!! We donated £35.00 to Shipley School and have now received a nice letter back thanking us very much. Great team effort everyone. Shipley managed to raise £3800 in total that afternoon for their school. We all then set off home for a well earned rest and a special dinner.
Panda - Assistant Social Secretary
Ragley 2004
July 31st, 2004
Friday 30th July saw 3 famiie’s, the Mercers, the Leybournes and the Scotts, set off for Ragley. We duly arrived, in convoy, at the caravan site and at first sight wondered where on earth we would pitch the gazebo and stake out the dogs, all the caravans were very close together. After a quick wander around with the owner, a Rally field was found to be hiding at the back of the site. The owner was worried their party, which was planned in the field for the Saturday night, would disturb us but she was assured that it wouldn’t so off we went to set up. We were right about it not disturbing us, we were later to bed than the partygoers!!!
Saturday morning saw an earlyish start and off we all headed towards Ragley Hall. Having not been there before I have to say what an absolute fantastic place, it almost appears out of nowhere. We are soon settled in for the day, vans in a ‘U’ shape and gazebo in place. Then comes the hard bit, persuading me to put on my wetsuit and enter with Bear. As most of you know I’m not the most confident of people in the water and anything/anywhere new is a bit daunting for me. Anyway Ange and Georgia were quite persuasive and assertive, so there was no way I was getting out of it and I would like to thank them for that as I had a brilliant time. I’ll be better behaved next year, promise!
A
fantastic day was had by all with some very good achievements:- Izzy,
1st in Advanced Water, Veteran Trophy, Best Working Showdog and in the
run off for 4th place in carting, well done to Izzy and Kev. Kayos (Ben),
5th in Beginners Water. Tallie (Keith), 4th in Advanced Water and 4th
in Carting. Bear (Sue), Water Trials Diploma for swimming out to the
boat and full marks for rescuing owner. Well done to all.
Not all went according to plan though, eh Kev. Was that Loxley in the obedience ring retrieving an item and returning to handler.............or was it partly return to handler, do an about turn and head straight for the water. Fortunately Keith and Rob were on hand to catch him but Loxley was quite insistent he wanted to go for a dip, it took all their strength not to end up in the water and eventually, still holding the item, he was returned to Kev. Not sure if Angie saw much of her runaway dog, she was hiding under a table so as not to distract him!!
Apart from a couple of overcast days it was too hot to do much with the dogs, although those days were used wisely. We managed some carting practice in preparation for the following weekend. Ben looked so professional I would have placed money on him having done it before. Another one of the days saw us take to the hills for a nice pleasant walk with our dogs, nice that was until we came to a steep downhill. Down went most with no problems but Kev and Georgia did manage to end up on their bottoms at one point. I decided to go ‘alone’ and Rob waited at the bottom for Ebony, unfortunately she got up such speed on the way down she just went past him, thanks to Keith she did eventually stop.
The rest of the week was taken up by human activities, as it was far too hot for the dogs and almost too hot for us. Luckily Keith purchased some water pistols and we were only too glad to have water fights, or even just sit there and let Ben ‘shoot’ at us as much as he liked. We had a pleasant boat ride in Stratford, and although Keith and Kev would have preferred a little more power it was very pleasurable and tranquil, not what they had in mind though I think!!
I would imagine
the highlight of Ben’s week was when he had a flying lesson, he
now has ½hr towards his pilots license. The look on his face and the
fact he was speechless, something that doesn’t usually happen with
Ben, told us that he enjoyed himself immensely. We have since had plenty
of verbal confirmation, only joking Ben. Jinny also had her own achievements,
she learnt how to feed herself with a spoon and managed to avoid her
nose and ears, quite an accomplishment for 6 month old I’d say.
Keith and Georgia arranged a ‘Murder Mystery’ evening when
we all had to dress as our characters. The food, superbly cooked by Georgia,
was excellent and a fun evening was had by all. Plenty of food and wine
was the order of the day and of course we had to oblige!!! The hours
of thunder and lightening that evening added its own particular atmosphere.
I was a little dismayed to find the alluring Frenchman, Bo Jolais, that
I lusted after was the murderer, very convincingly played by Kev. All
too soon it was time to travel back south to the Bat and Ball for our
own Rally but at least we had a fantastic time and like they say all
good things, unfortunately, must come to an end.
Sue Scott
Horsham Newfs Rally
7th and 8th of August, 2004
Our annual rally at the Bat & Ball gets more and more fun every year. There were a lot of campers this year joining in the activities. The Friday arrival, set-up and get stuck into the beer and wine went without a hitch. More and more there seems to be a routine for set-up day. The ‘boyz’ invariably arrive quite early to whip up their awnings. At least three of them seems to be the trend although this number is now growing. By lunch-time they’ve finished and they settle down with copious amounts of red wine to ‘watch’ for the others. There then ensues much joviality as they ‘watch’ the various goings on. Occasionally they raise themselves from their alcoholic haze to lend a hand, but to be honest most of the time they have a good old giggle.
Saturday dawned bright and beautiful for a day of water trials down at Shoreham. We were fortunate to have Pete with us for judging as he almost hadn’t made it due to transportation challenges. Anyway, we all battled our way down to Shoreham for a day by the seaside. There were a lot of dogs to get through but they all behaved impeccably with little mishap. Even Jinny had a dip in the sea in her miniature wetsuit. Back at the Bat & Ball we had a fabulous takeaway with all the trimmings.
On Sunday we did the
carting trials with many a surprise ‘good’ performer.
We were treated to an unexpected thunderstorm and torrential rain whilst
enjoying our pub lunch but not to be deterred the hardy amongst us soldiered
on munching
beefburgers under our umbrellas.
(…. This thunderstorm may well
have occurred during a previous trip to the Bat & Ball so apologies
if I have my days mixed up!)
| Water | 1 Tallie 2 Mica 3 Izzy 4 Leo 5 Merlin & Jasper |
| Carting | 1 Mica 2 Loxley 3 Millie 4 Tallie 5 Freya |
| Overall | 1 Mica 2 Tallie 3 Loxley 4 Millie 5 Izzy |
We say goodbye to dear friends Sheelah, Dani and Freya at Wellington
Horsham Newfs spent an enjoyable weekend together in September at Wellington
Country Park where we took the opportunity to hold a party to bid farewell
to our friends Sheelah, Dani and Freya.
Tears were shed, speeches were made, gifts were exchanged, a cake was consumed along with A LOT of alcohol and hey presto the lovely Stevens were off to new adventures in New Zealand. They will be greatly missed and we hope to see them again when they visit the UK.
Magnificent Horsham Men!
The Northern Newfoundland Club Newfletter arrived today. I was happily browsing through it over lunch when something caught my eye – ‘Horsham Men’.
The article was written by Llynda Baugh and was about her adventures with her newf Harry Potter. Llynda had attended water and draught tests throughout the year and it was her comments about Bala that stopped me in my tracks.
I'll quote from her article:
“ What I will remember most about the weekend was the magnificent Horsham Men who were fantastic water stewards. At the first sign of any danger, they dived in in unison with a performance worthy of the Olympics. Even I, who am petrified of being in the water, would have felt safe with them around.”
Well done to Keith & Nick for being magnificent Horsham Men and showing everyone that Horsham Newfs are a group who always put safety first.
The Legend of the Newfoundland
There in that land where the ocean waves explode upon the reef in a boiling foam, this legend was born.
As the story is told, God turned one day to contemplate all of his creations and saw that Newfoundland Isle, flailed by storm, a small nation of fisherman, whose rough, weather-beaten people fought courageously against the impervious elements of nature as the freezing cold winters and the unforgiving coastline took its toll, and the sea often asked its sacrifice of human life. Nevertheless they remained deep rooted , these men of Newfoundland, with a stubbornness as great as their courage.
God saw, and in His infinite compassion, thought how He might alleviate their suffering. He searched among all creatures of his creations, but He found none that would serve. It was then that He decided to create one a new! He took the body of the Bear; whose bone structure lent well to such arduous labours and whose thick fur would resist the bitter Newfoundland Isle cold. Then he thought to sweeten this silhouette with the lithe, limber lines and movement of the Seal, with all its prowess to swim and speedily slip between the waves. Now turning to face the sea, he saw the playful Dolphins, happily following the ships. Their sweet, joy-filled eyes revealing their serene temperament, and more; they so loved man that they often rescued them, saving them from the sea. Yes, this too would be part of this new creature.
When He was done molding and casting, there suddenly appeared in his creative arms, a superb animal with glistening black fur, powerful and sweet in the same moment. This new being, however, had to have an allegiance and faithfulness, tried and true, to be able to live beside Men and be ever ready to offer his life for his master. It was at that moment the Lord placed in its chest the heart of the dog, the miracle was complete!
From that day onward, those men of the sea had beside them their courageous companion, ever strong, ever faithful, the Newfoundland!
Emmy Bruno from “The Newfoundland”
Doing the Right Thing Hurts
So
you hear a story of a newf having a bad life.
Your first thought is I MUST HELP .
So I did, Kev and myself drove off like knights in shining armour to save this
poor neglected dog from a life of misery and help her find a happy place to
spend the rest of her life.
We entered the house to a greeting of MAKE THIS QUICK AND GET RID OF IT FAST. As we lead a sad and dejected dog from its home, the screams of pain and hurt rang out from the only person who loved this dog. A six year old little girl, too young to care properly for this large and beautiful dog, but old enough to know unconditional love for a faithful friend and companion. That girl’s sad face will live with me for a long time, I only wish there was another way.
As we drove away I felt sad but proud for what we had done. But that was the easy bit !!!! You go off and give this dog attention like it has probably never known before, then all of a sudden this dog has fixed itself on you . It watches you every where you go. Every time you look at it, it appears to smile. Every time you walk it, it wags its tail like its has never wagged before. You feel like the greatest kind of person alive. It’s a warm and happy feeling. Then comes the sledge hammer. The realisation that this has to stop, she needs a permanent home that you can’t offer! This great friendship can’t last but a couple of days.
The thoughts rush through your mind, will she be happy, will her new home work out, will her new family love her always and make her part of the family. And most of all, will I ever see her again & will she remember me . Luckily in this case the answer to most of these questions is yes, we got lucky and found a good home for her and will keep track to ensure it continues to work out.
She is a lovely girl and deserves the good home she has got. The moral of the story is EVEN BIG BOYS CRY. IT IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS BUT JUST A SIGN THAT YOU CARE.
Keith Leybourne
A Major Coup in 2004
Following detailed negotiation by our esteemed Chairman, Horsham Newfs
secured sponsorship from C&C Technology. This sponsorship has enabled
the club to invest in a new boat and engine to further complement our
club assets. In return for this investment we will be actively promoting
C&C’s logo at all public events attended by Horsham Newfs.
The Great River Race
A new endeavour for our club yet again! Horsham Newfs volunteered a power boat and 4 able bodied men to act as safety cover for the Great River Race on the Thames back in September 2004. This involved a full day in wetsuits cruising down the Thames at a stately pace (ie. Keeping up with the rowers!) and hoping to undertake a daring rescue. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) no rescues were needed by our boys but they enjoyed a day of ‘mucking about on the water’ regardless. Next year we plan to offer two boatloads!