A little USDAA!

Gracie, Mum and I attended a couple of USDAA trials in the past few weeks. What fun to be out there running again!

On November 10th we attended the trial in Birmingham, AL. It was a very, very long drive. And since we can't stay overnight because of my kittie bros, we had to get up very early to get there. Good thing there is a time difference on the way!

We left the cabin at 4 AM and got there at about 7:15 (their time). It was inside a soccer complex with two rings and one judge which makes for a very long day. The surface was the type of indoor soccer flooring we used to see in Indiana back about six years ago. Not spin turf, that's for sure. Hard, slippery and odd to run on - kind of like running on super worn indoor/outdoor carpet (that needed carpet cleaning raleigh), on top of concrete. Not fun.

I ran Gamblers first thing in the morning, ran good speed in the opening, but the closing was a teeter layering the tire, so kind of odd, and not my favorite type of gamble. I didn't run my Snooker run until almost 6:30 PM later that day. So by that time, I didn't have anything left in me after being up since 3 AM.

Gracie's first run was P1 Jumpers. And she surprised us again! It was one of the most focused, flowing, good speed runs Mum has ever seen Gracie run. And she was having a great time. Nice Q, first place, 5 YPS, and her P1 Jumpers title - good girl!

Her other two runs of the day kind of stunk, however. In standard, she wouldn't go near the teeter, and she looked like she'd never seen a weave pole in her life :). She didn't do too bad in the gamble, but missed one of the gamble jumps. But Mum was happy with her lateral distance!

We had a great time meeting a couple of new friends and talking with them throughout the day! One of them was Kate from Florida. I liked her and I don't always like high energy BC's. But she was easy to be around!

We ended up getting home at 2 AM, with Mum being up over 20 hours straight. Not the funnest day running agility that's for sure!

So the next weekend (last weekend) we ventured off to Gainesville, just about 1.5 hours from our cabin. And we were happy to be back running outside in a horse arena again.

Mum had been thinking that lately I have been hurting just a tad. Not enough to keep me from zooming in the yard, but enough that it was affecting my speed doing agility. And Mum felt just a bit of heat in my back on a couple of days. So for the three nights before this trial, Mum gave me a one Traumeel pill each night.

Well, it worked, I was raring to go when we got to Gainesville!

My only run the first day was gamblers, and I was moving pretty darn good! No seven for this gamblers, and Mum didn't want me to get used to the frame since it was a discrimination in the gamble, so we did the dogwalk instead. Jump, dogwalk, two tunnels, dogwalk, three jumps, chute, and then the buzzer went off. The gamble was a jump to a tunnel with both openings on either side of the frame, then out to two jumps. I came out of that chute, went flying over the jump right into the tunnel, then Mum gave me an out to the last two jumps and it was good!!!

Picked up another gamble for that ADCH, nice!

Gracie ran the next few runs, P2 jumpers (oh too slow, that stupid Lyme and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever), and P1 standard (wouldn't even look at the teeter and weaves). Her gamblers was interesting, she took the first two jumps (pretty straight shot) then ran off to visit a bar setter between the 2nd and third jump of the gamble, and came back and took the third jump. So she took too much time in the gamble, silly pup!

The next day I ran Gamblers and it was two jumps out toward the right, and then heading back left to the teeter and another jump. Guess we'll have to get our teeter fixed and get back to working on our teeter distance.

My Snooker was a little later in the day. I was still moving pretty good, but noticed that Mum was over handling me. Sheesh Mum, back off, will ya, I got this!!! So I ended up back jumping the five in the closing. Still got a Q and third place, but no SQ. But Mum was happy with my speed.

Gracie ran her P1 gamblers, and was doing really well, the buzzer went off and she barreled through the first two jumps, then had to go out a little to a tunnel that was wrapped under a dogwalk with the exit next to the entrance of the dogwalk. Gracie passed up the easy (and correct) tunnel entry (probably because Mum was late on the cue) and ran around the dogwalk to the exit of the tunnel instead, then came out of the entrance side of the tunnel and took the last jump. It was sooooo funny! Gotta give a girl a lot of credit for ambition and distance, that's for sure!

Her P2 jumpers was pretty good, but she got a sneezing fit in the middle so was over time. Poor thing.

Last run of the day was Gracie's P2 Snooker, so Mum didn't hold out a lot of hope for her since there wasn't a plan that would give her enough points unless she got through the six in the close which was six weaves. Oh well, she'd have some fun anyway and if Gracie got the weaves, it would all be fun gravy. Her run was kind of slow, but she did great with Mum's handling, really focused, and surprise, surprise, surprise! She got her weaves and even made it through one half of the final 7!

OMD Gracie got her P2 Snooker title and will be in P3 Snooker now, what is up with that?!?!!!!

It was a super fun day with super fun friends we hadn't seen in a while and really missed when we were in Birmingham and Huntsville! About four more trials between now and May, can't wait!