Well, the KC Licences had been procured and the venue had been booked for the 17th & 18th June 2023. Here in Llansawel the hall I use for training has a large field and the Committee that runs that venue allowed me to use the field and my hall for the two days. In fact, they were quite excited as Llansawel has never been used for a KC Show before! Being a rural farming community the only shows held in the village had sheep, companion dogs, and crafts. So this was a big event for the village as well as my Dog Academy.
There are a lot of regulations to follow for a KC Show and as the self appointed Secretary for the Show, I had to learn all of these. The Rally Obedience Regulations booklet 2023 was read and re-read as to the duties of a Secretary. The first task was to find Judges for the classes. Here, Nikki Kirk (my Chief Steward) was a godsend. Having years of competing and judging Rally she knew a few people and gave me their email addresses for me to contact them all with official Contracts.
Secondly, the Show Schedule had to be produced which contains the dates, the venue, the times, the classes, the names of the Judges, the "S" regulations, entry forms for both days and a Modification Exercise Form for competitors who have a disability or needed help while competing. Although the KC had a sample Schedule to copy on their website it was difficult to manipulate and edit, so I took the easier option and downloaded another club's Schedule and edited that. When the Schedule was finished it had to go out to competitors. There are two groups on FaceBook for Rally: KC Rally News and KC Rally UK. I uploaded the Schedule here and Julie Barrett also kindly put it on her website www.rallynews.co.uk.
So, all I had to do now was wait and hope that people would enter. And boy, did they come rolling in! Entries from Wales, Devon, Somerset, the Midlands and up North. Seventy-One competitors and their dogs wanted to be part of our inaugural Open Rally Obedience Show. We only thought it was going to be a small Show to give us experience but, as usual, Life throws you in at the deep end and says "Swim"!
Swim I did, and how you can read in the next blog Setting Up an Obedience Rally Show - Part 3.
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