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Monday, December 8, 2008

USDAA trial recap

Stayed home sick from work today. I almost coughed up a lung this morning. I realized after the first day that it probably wasn't the greatest idea to be running this weekend but I had teammates that were counting on me. It kind of sucks running agility when I can't even talk properly.

This was a tournament only trial so we had DAM team/PVP, Grand Prix/PNS, and Steeplechase/PSJ. Enzo ran in Championship and Tooney in performance. This was Enzo's first time competing at 22" in a year. Overall he did well at the height, a few bars here and there and he was being kind of careful most of the time and not driving as hard as normal. Hopefully he's get faster after a few trials at 22". Enzo's teamates were two border collies, Spark and Trace so our team name was Ready S.E.T. Go! Tooney's teammate was a sheltie named sport so our team was Sport Fishing for Toona.

Saturday, Enzo had a nice run in Grand Prix with one knocked bar. That would have been qualifying under last year's rules but not now unfortunately. Tooney had a good run but backjumped a jump that she was supposed to wrap.

Next was Team Snookers. Tooney had a zero point snookers round! I lead out and she knocked the first red jump and then I couldn't stop her from taking the next jump. Enzo did much better, it was a pretty tough snookers course so I planned for two 5's and a 7 and we ended up getting through number 5 in the closing which was decent for that course and way better than Tooney did!

In Team Jumpers both Tooney and Enzo E'd. In Enzo's run, I got out of position and went past the jump I was planning to rear cross. I tried to cross on the flat but he got confused and back jumped. Both of his teammates did well on the course so we were just above the cutoff after that round. Tooney did something bad in her run, she ran behind me and took an off course jump when I front crossed. She's been doing that lately so I need to proof against it. Tooney's teammate also E'd so we were in last place after that!

Both dogs ran clean in Steeplechase\PSJ round 1 so they both got their first qualifiers towards next year's nationals. In round 2 on Sunday Tooney got 4th place and Enzo knocked two bars.

In team gamblers, Enzo just missed getting through the timers before the buzzer went off. His nose was just right there. He pulled off of a tunnel that I sent him to so we got a little messed up. Maybe if my voice was working he would have gone when I said go or maybe not. Tooney had a really good gamblers run and ended up with 2nd place.

Team Standard went well too. Enzo was clean and Tooney had one knocked bar. Enzo's teammates both did really well and Tooney's teammate did well too but it was enough to get her team above the line. Enzo's team was 10th going into the relay and I think the cut was around 15.

In relay, Enzo's team did well. Enzo had a bar and a refusal at the teeter (the first of the weekend so not bad after last weekend), One teammate had one refusal and I think the other one was clean. Ready S.E.T. Go! ended up in 6th place so Enzo is qualified for DAM Team! Tooney and her Teammate both E'd so no Q for her. Suprisingly that's actually the first time Tooney hasn't qualified on a team that she ran on. We had fun though and were able to laugh about it. This was actually the most fun I've had running at a team event. Since Enzo's teammates were his classmates we were really able to strategize and analyze the courses together like we do in class. They were also really nice and came and found me after I E'd team jumpers to be supportive and tell me not to feel bad about it.

So to summarize, a Steeplechase Q and DAM team Q for Enzo at his re-debut at 22" plus a PSJ Q for Tooney, not too bad!

1 comment:

Sarah Duke said...

That is really, really cool! I love the DAM team thing. Enzo's doing so well. Oh and your team names are AWESOME!