ORIGINS? (continuation)

One farmer says to the others "Hey, why don’t we try and race the terriers?" They haven’t had many pots of ale at this stage of the evening, and there is a general note of disdain amongst his colleagues. "Don’t be daft" or "Och, ye must be outa yer weenie mind" are likely retorts (depending on which side of the border they actually were), and the terriers were no doubt thinking "racing? – racing? – he must be kidding! We’re terriers, - racing has rules - we don’t follow rules!".

But the idea got better and better. It always does doesn’t it? You must have been in that situation sometime. You’re out for a drink with your pals and someone comes up with a crazy idea. You tell that someone to ‘grow-up’ or ‘get-real’, but another hour or so later, and several more drinks inside you, it is suddenly the best idea in the world; and so it was with these guys (and thanks to the heat from the big log fire even the terriers have ‘downed’ quite a few by now), and they all staggered home to their respective farms having decided exactly what they were going to do the next day.

1^ST RACE?

They probably rose early,( being hardened drinkers they no longer suffered as so many of us do after a hard nights drinking), rushed through their milking or whatever, gave a whistle to the terriers to follow them, and set of to a reasonably flat field nearby on one of the farms. They had a box with a hinged front into which they could put 4 or 6 of the little terriers, and this they placed at one end of the field. They had an old bicycle which they had modified slightly, and which they placed at the other end of the field, and they had a length of baling twine which they attached to the bicycle wheel. To the other end of the twine they attached a lure of some sort, probably a fox’s brush or a rabbit skin. They needed some sort of finishing line, so they placed a line of straw bales in front of the bicycle with a narrow gap just wide enough for a terrier to squash through. Then they were ready for the ‘off’. They placed the terriers in the trap, someone on the bicycle started pedalling like mad, which wrapped the twine around the wheel and dragged the lure across the ground. At the same instant another guy opened the traps, and terriers being what terriers are, they sped down the course in pursuit of their quarry. The first terrier through the straw bales was the winning terrier. The very first terrier race had been run!

I don’t know if that is a true story or not. It is the one I always tell at our displays, and I don’t mind betting its not far from the truth. Whatever the truth, the idea soon caught on. It was a lot easier to manage than a ‘rat catching’ contest. It still gave the farmers a chance to show off their best terriers and to have a days sport with the inevitable wagers, and it was an excellent shop-window for breeders wishing to sell their terriers to the farmers.

TERRIER HEAVEN!

More than all that – it was hilarious fun – a great day out for the family – and the terriers loved it too. Not only could they have a good chase, but if they were very lucky they could have a darned good scrap with one of the other terriers at the slightest provocation. Terrier Heaven!