Lure Coursing can be Dangerous

Yesterday I returned home from my three week island retreat, house-sitting 11 borzois. The dogs were great and the time passed quickly. I left and drove straight to a lure coursing trial, where I met Rich and our three borzois - Toby, Catie and Rowan. Catie and Rowan now both have their Senior Courser AKC titles as well. Toby ran beautifully and was pure poetry in motion, however we didn't get photos of him running, unfortunately. Toby now has his Junior Courser title, too. Here's a photo of both girls running this weekend:




Now for the dangerous part of lure coursing.


Saturday I had volunteered to field clerk, which means, after every few courses, you run across the field to the judges area, retrieve the score sheets, and bring them back to the Field Secretary's table. Since I had just returned from the Island, I had my bicycle with me. After a few times hoofing it across the field and back, I discovered that I could just ride my bike out and back, much faster and it worked great!

Sunday morning, when we arrived, I walked across the field that was slick with dew to retrieve my bike. Shortly after climbing on and starting to pedal, the ground came up and smacked me in the face. At first I thought I'd broken my nose, then realized my back, neck and shoulders hurt like hell. As I rolled off my bicycle that I somehow landed on top of, Rich saw me and came running. My left shoulder was bruised, down my chest and my left breast (handlebars I think), my cheek and nose were bruised but thankfully not broken, my thigh, knee, and calf had huge bruises and I mildly sprained my ankle. Oh, and knocked a crown loose on a tooth I later discovered. I think I suffered a mild concussion since I had a headache for 8 days and was very sleepy for 2-3 days after! Fortunately a doctor was on site and checked me out as more or less OK.

Then, later in the day, as Rich was retrieving Toby after his run, he slipped and fell on the start line and twisted his arm/elbow severely too. We decided that neither of us earned OUR JC's that weekend, lure coursing can be dangerous after all.