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A Personal View by Karen Stanbrook
What does it feel like to represent your country in front of an audience of agility enthusiasts from around the world in what might be considered agility's Olympics? Karen Stanbrook, member of 2008 GB Team, wrote up her thoughts after she returned from Helsinki.I thought my feelings were pretty much under control. I didn't get nervous or excited... not that is, until the day before we left for Finland. Then I found I had a stupid grin on my face all day. The day we left, however, was a nightmare as Lesley Olden's dog had gone lame and had to be rushed to the physio late on Tuesday afternoon, delaying the start of our journey. The worry was whether Beanie would be fit so that we could actually compete as a team when there was NO reserve. I hate to think what Steve Croxford was going through. Never having been to a World Championship, to be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had spoken to previous Team GB members who just said it's not like anything you've ever experienced before. 'Just go and really enjoy it,' they said. After a lousy night's sleep, I woke up with a huge bruise on my forehead which I had the whole time I was competing. It was probably from where my fingers had been imbedded on it all night. I can now put this down to nerves. The body's a funny thing in the way that it expresses itself! The competition started the night before with a gala dinner put on by the hosts. I took 10 minutes to myself and went into the empty arena. It was massive. At the same time, the area where we were to compete looked really small. That's when it sunk in that this was the World Championships and that I was actually there - me and my wonderful boy had done it. We'd be wearing the GB team uniform with pride. I already knew a few of the people on the team, but not all. It was nice to see that these well known respected handlers who had done this all before were... well, normal! We all got on really well. It was great to get to know these people better. I thought that more GB supporters might have travelled to Finland but obviously with the cost of travel etc., this was not to be.
It was an exhausting four days with all the pressure and constant adrenalin rush, early starts and late nights. How the team did it last year being so far away from the venue, I don't know. I applaud them. One of the most memorable moments was watching a team member run away from the restaurant, being chased by the manager for taking food. That was hilarious! I also enjoyed doing our warm up routine with teams from other countries watching what the hell the mad Brits were doing. I remember the camaraderie, the highs and lows of the excellent runs and the nearly runs, the excellent team mates and great supporters but, most of all, I took away the memory and the pride that I got there! About the author... Her dog is Kai (Dreamarkis Daydreamer) is seven years old and Karen bred him herself. She still has his dad Murphy (Moshanta Myths of Time) who only retired at 11 years. She says that Kai is a dog in a million and an absolute pleasure to have around. He is a very kind, well mannered dog with a superb temperament, but a real softy at heart who has done everything asked of him. He always given his all. Karen is mum to Leigh (5) and Aidan (2). She works part-time for a personal credit company. |
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The hardest thing to get
your head around was the constant policing of the stewards both in the press stand and the
collecting ring. If your dog even looked as if it would play, you were told off. The slow
handclapping was weird to hear because in the UK it has a different connotation and took a lot
of getting used to. Once you are under test you can't hear a thing around the arena and when
you start running, its eerily silent until you do something the onlookers consider to be good.
Then they clap which is a great feeling.