I was very surprised when, out of the blue, an invitation to judge came from the Swedish Collie Club. I remember feeling extremely honoured and very excited although also very nervous!! It was on the 18th of August (by coincidence the same date Ch Phrosty Moon was born 12 years later) 1984 and I was lucky to have some lovely Collies to go over. Open shows were not so common in Scandinavia and were usually arranged by the breed clubs. In 1986 I judged my first club open show in Norway.

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Whilst staying at Corydon, Barbara put my name forward to judge at Westwoodside Agricultural Society and so I came to judge my first open show in England, something I was very proud of. Again, I was lucky to have some very nice Collies entered. This was on the 27th June 1987, coincidentally the same date our son was born, although 16 years later. Barbara would sometimes be asked about judges for open shows and she would pass the enquiries on to Miranda or me which was how I was invited to quite a few open shows - it was extremely helpful and over a few years I collected the necessary classes and was invited to judge at club open shows, the first being West of England Collie Society in 1996. I was also very honoured to be asked to judge at The Rough Collie Club of Ireland's open show in 1993 as well as a match night for Riddings Ringcraft Society which Edith Pryor invited me to - I was presented with lots of breeds I knew nothing about but it was good fun!

 

It was a great honour to award CCs for the first time at East Anglian Collie Association's Ch Show in 2014. I very much enjoyed the day and was very happy when the bitch I awarded the CC to (her first at 6 years old) later achieved her title. I was also very pleased that my co-judge on the day was John and we were in agreement that the handsome young CC winning male should be awarded BOB - he later also gained his champion title.