Southern Counties Bearded Collie Club

I would ike to thank the committee and exhibitors for the warm welcome I received. Also my most efficient and helpful stewards who kept the show moving along.  It was so lovely to be surrounded by Beardies after many years away from the breed and I thank you for the nice entry.

It has been some years since I last judged Beardies and that was during a period when size, particularly in the bitches, was dropping and coats were particularly heavy, swamping the smaller dogs. I was pleased that overall size today was more to standard and coats were much more in balance allowing the lovely outline to show through. I had always been very impressed with the effortless free flowing movement that was such a striking feature of the Beardies 20 – 30 years ago and which sadly, is now hard to find.

Although most exhibits have a good lay back of shoulder the steepness of upper arm restricts the forward reach and smooth, efficient covering of the ground and also impedes the drive from the rear. I hope this will improve again with careful selective breeding. There is no nicer picture than to see a well constructed Beardie floating effortlessly around the ring.

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Margaret Lambert (Blenmerrow)