Beachside Independent

Salters sponsored the Beachside Independent Agility Show this Summer, a show which has gone from strength to strength under the organisation of Sarah King and Pauline Homer.

Several years ago, Sarah King used to hold small fun dog shows at a local village hall with car boot stalls, bouncy castles, plant stalls and a fun dog show. Monies from which went to alternative therapies for palliative patients in North Norfolk and the first show alone raised £1300. This went on for a couple of years after which Sarah decided to include a small agility show with this. The only problem was finding a place for folk to camp.

A friend suggested a camp site at Waxham which is approximately 4 miles from where the shows were being held. “Better than nothing” Sarah thought, so went to meet to the man who ran it.

The rest is history, as from thereon in the shows gathered pace and were held at the camping site. After a successful small agility show held under the ruling of the British Agility Association, Sarah was contacted by a Farmer from the Great Yarmouth area who offered a new equestrian centre to hire which is where Beachside Agility Club started.

Initially, they ran a two day show in May at Waxham but this has now grown to be almost a week of competing, with a break in between to give the dogs a rest. It’s grown from 80 units camping up to 140 as people class it as a week by the sea with the added bonus of agility competition.

For all the fun dog shows held, all the money is given to charity, Air Ambulance being the recipient of the most money, well over £2000 plus smaller amounts given to local dog rescue centres, RNLI and the last amount went to Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Sarah has since broken away from BAA and become Beachside Independent, although they are trying to incorporate some of the competitions that the BAA held such as the Finals for all levels of competing.

Beachside Independent will be holding its first Finals on Monday 4th May 2015.

Within each group there are normally five events consisting of Agility, Jumping, Helter Skelter, power and speed, and one other fun class.

The finals are made up from 20 dogs in each group but only doing Agility (which consists of jumps, contacts and weaves and a jumping course, so there’s a winner in each group). This gives an overall 28 first place winners in Agility and 28 in jumping.

It looks like loads of fun! Here are the photos to prove it: