This is going to be "quick and dirty" cause I really need to get some sleep. I can't remember if I said yesterday how I entered Fast all three days because if you need just one, you can't enter one or you won't qualify. Not a solid, factually proven rule, but you get my gist. So yesterday (first day), Vegas did qualify and earned that level title. So today I was kind of hoping for a difficult Fast course. After all, yesterday was a tunnel to an a-frame then a 10 foot or so send into the weaves at 90-degrees. Yeah, not happening. Well, pooh. That didn't work out so well. lol.
Three jumps. Sooo, here is what we did.
We finished right about the time the buzzer went off. Our final score was 66 points and 33 and some-odd seconds. Vegas got second place to a Pharoh Hound. So we run Fast again tomorrow. We shall see what happens though because it'll be the judge that had the crazy hard course Friday.
Next up - quite a while later - was Standard again. I was working myself up a bit watching it and walking it because the weave entrance was a tough one. Enough so that my heart was beating too fast and I was worried I would stress Vegas out. I chatted with the Pharoh's owner about it and ended up walking both scenarios thoroughly.
Now, here's how it played out. I did go with the front cross at the weaves and Vegas did great. I think I held my breath until she finished them and then whooped with joy (internally) as we drove for the tunnel. All was well until we got to the stretch following the table. I must have left my brain with the weaves because I didn't tell Vegas until she was in the air over the triple what to do next. So, silly me, instead of letting her land, I queued her and she, being the rockstar she always is, tried valiantly to do what I asked. Oops, crap. That usually means the "landing gear" starts to come down. Well, there went the top bar of the triple. Damn!
Her time was 58 and change; SCT was 71. Yep; I cost us 12 precious MACH points. Argh. She, of course, was properly spoilt with treats. :)
JWW:
And...I think we were just destined to start our day great and end with a bang - of sorts. Vegas was flying. There's no other way to describe it. She was flying through the first jumps and my handling was slow. We managed to make it to the weaves though before it fell apart. Interestingly enough, it wasn't about the weaves and not doing them, it was kind of like in the movie "Up" when the dogs hear the word
squirrel. Our friend, Laura who runs an awesome Rottweiler, Jada, was sitting in a chair right at the back of the course to the top right of the weaves and Vegas seemed to "spot" her and well, went on alert just enough that she strode one step past the weaves so I had to pull her back. Yep. Refusal. And that was sort of when my handling took a back seat to shock, awe, and annoyance. Cest la vie. That was our day and we have another tomorrow.
Here are the ribbon pictures as promised:
Above left: MXJ and qualifying ribbons from 12/17/2010. Above right: Second place and qualifying ribbons from Excellent A Fast.
Above left: New title, first place, and qualifying ribbons from OF.
Now off to bed with me to snooze away like the doggies. Gotta get up earlier tomorrow and pack the truck and check out of the hotel. Goodnight, all!
Congratulations on your first XF leg! That send bonus looked very tricky, especially for a large dog. I would've done the teeter back to the A-Frame as well.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the ribbons. I haven't yet entered a trial where the Qualifying ones are actual rosettes; we've only had the flat ribbons so far. I also hadn't heard of one that had specific ribbons for specific titles earned - that's really cool that they do that!