Back from the trial!

We're back from the trail this weekend. I have to say that I wasn't up to my best, fur sure.

It was hot, it was muggy, it rained a bit, the sun came out..I ran all my runs on Saturday - standard, snooker, gamblers, and steeplechase.

We Q'd in snooker, despite the fact that we didn't make it through the last 7 (ran out of time). I was over time in standard by a second, and steeplechase by a few seconds. Just wasn't running my usual self.

Gamblers was interesting. Mum did well with my opening and we were in a great spot for the entrance to the gamble when the buzzer sounded - teeter, out to the chute, back in for a jump and then an out jump. There was a dummy jump straight out from the chute, but pretty far from Mum. Well, I got ambitious and took the dummy jump.

On one hand Mum was disappointed she didn't get a 'here' out soon enough, but way impressed with me taking a jump that far away from her.

But the whole day, I just wasn't myself, gotta tell ya. Especially in the weaves; that's what killed us on time in all our 'overtime' runs. Went home on Saturday and Mum rubbed me a bit. Checked me out thoroughly again on Sunday AM. I showed her I was sore at my ribs and my mid back. When she touched that area I gave her the 'look'.

So Mum had me run pairs (she pulled me out of the weaves to early, so NQ), and pulled me from the second round of steeplechase and snooker. She just thought the weaves were bugging me too much. We ran the last run of the day, jumpers, and had a pretty smooth run. But dang it, we were over by about six tenths of a second. We only needed one more for our Masters Jumpers title. Well, next time.

So not the best weekend for us by far! Mum had Auntie Bonnie get me a tune up chiro adjustment and I felt better. And Mum is giving me a week or two of time off agility to get me rested up and bruises healed from the car accident. She's a firm believer in giving time off now and then, just resets the switches sometimes and helps you enjoy it much more.

Gracie ran two runs this weekend, one standard on Saturday and one on Sunday. Saturday Mum got her out real early and real often to get her acclimated to the environment. Gracie was real focused on Mum outside the ring. Then it was their time to run and Mum was really calm, Gracie seemed focused.

But they got to the start line and Mum was going to run with her. Well she completely ran around the first jump and continued to run around the ring. Mum finally was able to catch up with her and carry her off the course.

But Sunday was a lot different. Mum saw the course with two straight jumps in a row and thought that was just an invitation for disaster. Gracie would surely run off if Mum ran with her. So they both workedon long lead outs at the practice jump., using a treat lure.

Then when it was time for them to run, Mum did a two jump lead out and called Gracie to her. She DID IT!!! She took two jumps, then a third (to the left), then the frame...then it was the table. Well she zoomed by the table, but took the next obstacle the chute. So Mum then headed for the exit with Gracie barrelling her way around with her. Gracie took the last obstacle (the tire). And when Mum called her back to put her collar on, she came right back. What a GOOD GIRL!!!!!

Mum can run with me, 'cause we have distance and I'm smaller. But Gracie was taking that course at speeds Mum just isn't used to. Gracie reminded Mum of our friend Uma yesterday. That's a really great thing, but a whole other ball game.

But the focus (however zoomie it may have been) was a huge milestone for Gracie. Even though she was kind of zoomie, she was taking obstacles with Mum's direction (except for the table). They kept it real upbeat the whole way, and Mum just didn't even give her a chance to run around.

At practice Gracie is one speed, but is obviously going to kick it into the highest gear possible at trials. So Mum and Gracie need to work more on distance, getting commands out earlier, 2o2o's; so that when Gracie is running in a trial situation, Mum can keep her going. Because the minute their is a slight hesitation in Mums direction, Gracie is obviously going to do what she chooses.

So they have a lot of stuff to work on, but Mum was really happy with Gracie's run, she shows incredible promise.

Mum was really sore all weekend, so she had a friend do Reiki on her. She said it helped a lot. But she just couldn't help out at the trail this weekend. The trail was put on by our trainer, Trainer J, and Mum felt bad not being able to help out. It was just about all she could do to run us and take care of our tent and stuff.

So we are going to take it easy again this week. Trainer J may be taking the week off too, she's beat as well. So Mum may take Gracie to the training center open practice this week, since she is entered in a trial there in a couple of weeks.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!!!