Trial weekend

I went to a trial this weekend. It was Friday night and Saturday night.  At night because its so hot outside.  Friday it started at 4:30 and Saturday at 3:30.  What long nights and I didnt stay for my last run either night. My dogs didnt care that we didnt go to bed until 1am, both mornings they were up at 6am.  I just cant do that. Ive had a headache everyday, I think from not enough sleep.

So first up on Friday was Master Gambler.  She ran very nice but we didnt get the gamble. I didnt think we would.  When I watched people run, the ones who got it, stopped turned and said "out chute"and there dog just did it.

In the gamble she did #1 and #2 then came back out and took #1 again.  Everything else was good. Great weaves and aframe. Teeter she self released but it was still good. I think we got 41 points. (No video)

Then it was a 5 hour wait until starters standard. Ugh, it felt like AKC. It was now 9:45 at night.

It was pretty straight forward. She got right on the table. whoohooo!!





After that was GrandPrix.

My two areas of concern were after the chute  because she usually goes wide. I was planning on FC after the chute but everyone else was FC after #8.  I walked it both ways.  But after seeing this really fast borderstaffy almost go off course, I decided to stick with fc right by the chute. Also after the a-frame, see jump #13. If you sat at the bottom of the a-frame you could see both #12 and #13 jumps but I think with the way you ran your line from the a-frame, it pulled your dog toward you because of the big wing, so your dog may not see or take jump #13.  I decided I would move laterally away from the a-frame while she was on it. Then when I released her at the bottom, I could push into to her and still  be wide enough to say around the wing.  Lots of poeples dogs missed jump #13 when they ran on the right side. Miley got it.  Another thing people did was be on the left side of the a-frame and rc #13 and then fc after #14.  I dont know how they got there in time to make that FC but they did. I knew I never could, so I stuck with my plan.  I also FC after#14.



WhooHoo, we Qed and took first place.( It was a small class. ) I was so happy we stayed on course.  We got a bye into regionals in GrandPrix but its the weekend of Stephanies graduation so I wont be going. Plus we have lots more practice to do and work on being a team before we start doing stuff like that. It was still nice. It was now 11pm and I still had pairs to run. I didnt have a partner so I decieded just to call it a night. I was beat.

Saturday I was a really warm start to the day. I think 87 and muggy. We started with Speedjumping.

The turkey broke her startline. Ugh, she had been doing so well. I had planned to lead out and do a running FC after #3. So much for that. I did a post turn. It worked but she dropped the bar at #3. The hard part was #14 to #15 but she did it without going off course. WhooHoo!! We Qed again. I love that sometimes even with a dropped bar you can still Q in USDAA.  We got to move on to the 2nd round.

Next was adv. Jumpers.

I was worried about her breaking her start and released her a little too soon. I think my FC after#3 must have caused her to drop the bar. But we stayed on course. We havent stayed on course in an Adv jumpers course yet. Whoohoo again!!

Now for the second round of Speedjumping. I was beat. I really didnt want to run but I felt like it was a free run.

 I didnt video this. For some weird reason she pulled out of the weaves early on #3, then we went off course into the wrong tunnel entrance. Hey I just notice this is the third time obstacle #3 has been a problem. I wonder what that means?  Everything else was good except the weaves at the end. She missed the entry and I has to put her back in. So I decieded to move laterally away from the weaves to see if she would pull out, but she didnt.  It felt like a crap run and now I just wasnt feeling good about things and kept trying to decided if I should just call it a night. It was very muggy even with the sun down.

Snooker looked like I could actually do it.  LOL, NOT! 

I started all the way at the red jump on the left, did a huge lead out to the left side of jump #4. And she didnt break!  After taking #4, went to that middle red jump and Front crossed to bring her over #5. I must have screwed up my post turn at #5 that was suppose to bring her over the last red jump but she went to the tunnel. Whistle.  LOL. She came right to me and was soo happy.  Even the judge said, "wow she proud of herself"  . But it had to be my fault. And I was happy that she was happy and not stress circling the ring.  So it was now 9pm and after me screwing up my last two runs, I decded not to stay for standard. I really didnt want to mess up the table.

Im so happy we dont have to run today, because I coudnt do it.

( sorry for the misspelling, blogger isnt wanting to show me my spelling errors)