Second Place in Open - Bitch, Judge: Mr Chris Wallace (Hobholt)
My thanks to Darlington Dog Show Society for the opportunity to judge my first Championship Show and to the exhibitors for bringing your Borders’. My stewards John and Carol were very helpful and kept the ring well organised. Despite feeling somewhat nervous before judging started I thoroughly enjoyed the day and thank the exhibitors for accepting my decisions.
Our standard mentions moderate 4 times in its current form, it also provides guidance on size (weight) and body (spanning). I mention these points as there were a surprising number of Borders’ that were impossible to span, were too deep in chest, big, heavy and exaggerated in a number of areas. Movement became a key criteria when placing my Borders along with being moderate and not exaggerated. A lot of Borders were “Knitting” in front movement or flicking their wrists outwards, probably best described as erratic compared to the Borders that moved well. Mouths were good overall, one chipped tooth which was of no consequence. Coats and pelts were excellent overall, and the dogs were complete.
Overall, we have a number of promising youngsters coming through and it’s unfortunate judges only have two “tickets” to hand out.
For me the best class of the day and the only class I decided to shortlist the card winners. It was all down to movement with all carded dogs being of exceptional quality
Gr&T, 31 months, another stunner, slightly stronger head than 1, maybe a touch heavier in bone, but has similar qualities to 1. Narrow, lovely reach of neck, great topline to good tailset, in harsh dense tidy double coat with loose pelt. Easy span, flat ribs to strong loins. Movement was good and true front and rear. Held a nice level topline. Shown extremely well. RCC