USDAA in Pueblo, May 17&18 2008

It was a hot windy ( ez-up killing windy) day on Saturday, and hotter but mostly wind-free day on Sunday in Pueblo.
When things don't go as planned, it's easy to focus on the negatives, so instead I will focus first on what went well this weekend for me & Skyeboy.
We got a Q/2nd in Standard, a Q/1st in Jumpers and a Q/2nd in Snooker. We had great start-lines when needed and not a single bar came down the entire weekend. The Jumpers run was the last, and, I felt, the best of our weekend (one badly placed FC slowed us down a bit) - we ran fast and I felt connected.

So most of what didn't go right this weekend took place around the stinking weave poles. The ring that I ran almost all my runs in had poles that were plain white - no stripes of any kind. Skye felt they were possessed and didn't want any part of them. He missed EVERY stinking entry this weekend. He often missed the re-try entries. For the first time ever, I downed Skye during the run (Performance Steeplechase) and left without finishing. That came following 7 straight missed weaves over 2 runs. Possessed he still says.

We ran 2 gamblers courses this weekend. The first time, on Saturday, we got the gamble but didnt have enough points in the opening to qualify because I wasted too much time trying to get him to weave. On Sunday's gamblers, we were running great and all was going as planned when Skye slipped on the teeter and smacked his front left leg into the teeter support and came up limping. Fortunately he was Ok shortly after, and the judge let us redo the teeter before we left, but the run was over at that point.
My Pairs relay run was 0.39 seconds over time because both Skye and my relay partner's dog had to redo the weaves, and somewhere a 5pt fault was called.

It was not our best work, but every trial is a learning experience, and this was no exception.