Shhhh Don’t Tell Anyone

Well a bunch of us snuck away on Thursday night for the one and only USDAA trial in Ontario this year. Unfortunately for the organizers the trial was quiet a small one but fortunately for us the trial was a small one:).  It was awesome, so as much as we would like the organizers to have more participants to help them break even financially, we selfishly really would like to keep this trial on the small side. There were 2 rings but only one used at a time as there was only one judge.  The judge Mark Wirant always has very technical courses and he didn’t disappoint us this weekend. It gave us all a great tune up for next weekend’s Ontario Regional Championships. It was  great weekend for me. Encore ran in 14 classes and qualified in 13 and winning all but one or two  where I decisively held her contacts.  Encore won the Grand Prix and both her and Feature won the Steeplechase class.  Feature had some great runs over the three day weekend, but also had an uncharacteristic odd bar down spoiling some otherwise very pretty runs. She has recently discovered how to bounce jumps in competition making her that much faster but putting my timing off for front and rear crosses. It is difficult to try to be consistent with your timing when your dog is leaving the ground for a jump 10′ away from the jump:).  The other problem this new discovery of power is creating is her lack of desire to collect when she should. The two of us will work it out but for now it is back foundation both in and out of the ring.  Lots to get done this week, over 200 emails waiting for me when I got home last night.  Will try to catch up!

Today I am grateful and proud for awesome showing all of the Say Yes students had at last weekend’s trial as well as being grateful to be able to run in such a small trial (we were done by 1 PM on Friday, 4 on Saturday and noon yesterday). I do feel badly for the organizers but it really is nice being able to run at such a relaxed trial!