Finding
the venue was easy. Moving was not ...
 When
Canine Sports, a flourishing dog agility club, suddenly found itself without a venue, owner Estelle Lankester was shocked - and worried. Instead of giving up, she saw the challenge as an
opportunity and found a perfect alternative right under her nose.
In
the middle of 2012, the owners of the Sedgeway
Equestrian Centre, the premises Estelle had been using for her Canine Sports Agility Club, gave
notice that they wanted the space for themselves, in order to bring their equestrian business
under cover for the winter.
‘I knew the owner well, but his business was growing
and he needed to make more use of the indoor school. We'd been using it two nights of a week
for several years so it was a major issue,' said Cambridgeshire-based Estelle.
Though he tried to help us find an alternative site
within the equestrian centres grounds, there was nothing else suitable. Estelle wanted
somewhere indoors, so that they could use it all year round. She was absolutely determined to
find somewhere.
Then, while out walking her dogs, she took another look
at a vacant barn near her home village of Stuntney, a mile south of Ely.
'I'd known about it for years. It had been used in
the past and so I'd never really given it a second thought. It was only
when we needed a new venue that I saw it in a different light. It
was piled high with straw on first viewing so I couldn't really see how big it was. I was
delighted when its true size was revealed,' she said.
 It
was then that the hard work really started
The surface was under several feet of straw and almost as
many cobwebs. The farmer took care of clearing out all the straw and put me in the cherry
picker to clean the lights, replace bulbs and so on.
When the venue was cleared, it turned to be a really good size and
bigger than previously thought. Not all of the barn had a brick surround so Estelle's husband
Terry took care of the shuttering at the bottom to hold in the sand along the exposed end.
Club members then pulled together, helping the pair clean, paint and
finish off the dog proofing. They had two evening 'raking parties' to level out the sand that
was delivered - something which would have taken weeks to do single-handed. The new surface
was laid, levelled and the equipment moved in. It took two vans and a very full trailer load
of equipment to move all the gear from the old to the new venue.
Of course, there were teething problems. For instance, they had to
wait longer than expected for a water supply and meanwhile the surface became very dusty, but
once it had been dampened down it started to firm up nicely.
 But
it was worth it...
Canine Sports have
now settled into their new venue which has its own private car park and use of a small field
for clients to exercise their dogs in. Agility training at Canine Sports caters for all levels
from beginners to Grade 7 as well as those who just want to have fun. As a result of having a
new venue, the club has expanded to three nights a week - Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
'The extra space
we've now got means we have plenty of capacity for new members –although we keep individual
class sizes small so that everybody gets plenty of quality time for practice and training,'
said Estelle. Private tuition is also available for those looking for that special bit of
extra 'TLC'.
'It was a lot of very hard
work, but to have an indoor venue to ourselves where we don't have to set up or take down
each training session is wonderful. Experienced members can also come along to use the arena
by themselves regardless of the weather as an extra to their weekly training,' said Estelle.
Help please...
Now Estelle is looking for a bit of advice. 'The surface is
continuing to improve but if anyone can suggest something to mix in with the sand to help keep
in moisture and or bind it together to lessen the need for constant watering I'd be very
interested as we always keen to keep improving the venue.'
If you think you can help, and for further details of the centre and
its training facilities, please email agility@k9-sports.co.uk
 About the authors...
Estelle
Lankester lives in Cambridgeshire and currently competes at G6 with her rescue WSD. She
runs Canine Sports Agility Club as well as giving private agility tuition.
Her other passion is making fused glass which she sells in
galleries as well as providing many shows with glass trophies'
John Spencer has been a journalist for more than
30 years, 13 of them as Managing Editor of the Press Association, the national news agency for
Britain and Ireland. He is now a freelance travel writer and media consultant.
First published 11
March 2013
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