Doranna Durgin

I obviously read. I read across genres and I read to research, to admire, and to entertain myself. It's a lot of reading, I suppose....



But mostly I train my four-leggeds. I have a Lipizzan gelding and we ride dressage and sometimes play on the local national forest trails. He's opinionated, personable, and glorious.



I also have four dogs. My oldest (Kacey, a Cardigan Welsh Corgi) has her CGC but is retired after abortive attempts to channel her evil genius into something more constructive. It's usually fun to have obedience trial spectators admiring your dog...except when it's for her extreme cleverness because she's engaged in something jaw-droppingly creative to disqualify you both. (Kacey has recently passed on. I haven't quite faced it yet.)



The second (also a Cardigan, whose name (Jean-Luc Picardigan) reflects the Trek tie-in book I wrote) is a brain-injured guy who only truly began to function after he started his agility training. He was never expected to earn even his novice titles, but he's done that and more. Not particularly graceful, he still runs with enthusiasm and is currently playing schoolmaster to a novice handler.



Belle Cardigan is my third oldest, and she's an incredible athlete who wants nothing more than to please. Belle's agility career was cut short in her prime when she suffered an injury unrelated to agility (a dwarf breed thing). After two years of intensive care and rehab, she's now running nearly normally again--and staying fit protects her, as much as possible, from the inevitable recurrence of her condition. Belle runs in the excellent/elite levels of agility and recently earned her PAX (the highest title available in her height class) and when she's really pleased with herself she runs with a condition called "propeller butt." She also has her AKC Rally Excellent and an obedience title (CD).



Connery, odd dog out and the youngest of the pack, is a Beagle--a throwback to the hounds I loved while I was in the Appalachians. Connery is also known as Air Beagle, and he has kick-butt form on an agility course. He's a breed champion (Ch. Cedar Ridge DoubleOSeven), and he's running for his MACH in AKC (also known as a "pipe dream"). He also has his excellent rally obedience title and his novice obedience title.

On my web page, of course, there are endless pics of the kids doing agility and dressage and engaged in various antics.

Lo these many years ago when I started agility, I didn't expect to love it as I do. I didn't have any idea of the addictive effects of those moments on the course, running in complete synch with your dog partner--that it came close to that feeling of riding bareback when you and your horse are thinking with the same brain. The dogs and I have a whole storage bin of blue ribbons, but that's not really what it's about for us--the doing well in comparison with others. It's about doing as well as we can do, as a team, with each other.

Probably no little wonder I put so many animals in my books.