Rusty or Rested?

So I wrote last week that Xander and I had not competed since early December and that I expected to be a bit rusty for this weekend's trial. Turns out, a little rest seemed to do us good!

I also mentioned that I was dreading the trial just a bit. Being a chief course builder is always a bit stressful, and you never know what will happen. It turned out that we did have a few issues to deal with resulting from our newly rubberized contacts, but we worked them out on Thursday. I will admit that my stress level was outweighing my fun level toward the start of the weekend, but by the end, that had shifted completely. Waking up at 5am, scrambling to build courses before the trial begins at 8am, and being on point all day for course changes is tiring, and I often tell myself I won't ever do it again! However, by the end of the weekend, I feel satisfied (and tired and sore), but also that my efforts were worth it. Much thanks to my fellow course builder Peter Lui, and to all the people that pitched in (especially Alicia and Keiko). Buster was in Michigan at the wedding of our friends Mike and Ashley (a completely different story), so I didn't have his muscles or video taping skills. Still, he had a blast on his own, and I am very glad that he was there since I could not be.

This trial was one of only two four day trials that Xander and I have ever participated in. It was also AKC, which admittedly is not my preference anymore. I really love USDAA, but would still like to get a MACH, and enjoy the large amount of competition at an AKC trial in the 20in class. I had originally entered Kirby, but due to a persistent limp, I pulled him. As much as I hate to do it, I am officially declaring him retired due to perpetually gimpy knee. Poor guy, as much as he loves the game, and as blazingly fast as he is, it's not worth it to have him limp for days afterwards. He is over six years old, and it's not going to get any better. So he is Kirby, OA, AXJ (with 1st and 3rd place MXJ legs to boot ;) and he is retired along with MACH 2 Kaylee, OF, AAD.

Xander came into the weekend having not done AKC since early November I think it was, and had four Q's toward each of his masters titles, as well as his Excellent A FAST title. On Thursday we ran STD, JWW, and Time2Beat. We earned our second Double Q with two 3rd places, and just had one bar down in T2B. On Friday, we ran FAST, STD, and JWW, and earned a 3rd in FAST (I miscalculated the number of jumps to take, and held his AWESOME a-frame contact in the send with a gooooood boy! so we went over by one second ;)We had a bit of a communication breakdown in standard, but lovely contacts and a good chance to reinforce some things in the ring. We also had a blazing JWW run at around 22 seconds, but were beaten by a fraction and earned 2nd place. On Saturday, we got our first ever triple Q with a 2nd place in FAST(80pts and a super fantastic send over the triple to the weaves) and JWW (again a smoking time, but edged out a fraction by Singe, who beat us two days in a row althoug we were both around 23 seconds!) However, we got a 1st in standard which felt really awesome against the great amount of competition. Finally on Sunday, we only had STD and JWW, and we were both exhausted. He had a fabulous STD run, but I caused him to knock the triple. We laid down another smoking JWW run, although he felt a little slower in the weaves, so we again missed 1st place by a fraction of a second and settled for 2nd place. Although we couldn't quite capture that 1st place in JWW all weekend, we were four for four on Q's, and he placed in every run that he qualified all weekend long! The final tally was four JWW legs, two STD legs, two master FAST legs, and only three NQ's (two were bars, and one was a minor train wreck to keep us humble ;)

He now only needs two JWW legs for his MXJ, four STD legs for his MX, and has two MXF legs toward that title. He also has three DQ's and 264 pts toward his MACH. There is a nice three day trial in Palmetto at the end of May where we could camp again.... ;)

Most importantly, I had FUN in every single run with him. I think for the first time ever, I was able to truly let go of any expectations and just ENJOY each run for what it was. They were great courses, lots of opportunity to run fast, especially in JWW, and he was happy to play every time I asked him, even at the end of four long days. I LOVE that boy of mine. He just makes me smile every time we get ready to run, and every time we go celebrate afterwards. He is so pleased with himself, and greatful to me that I take him to play this game that we love. He was also beyond ecstatic when he came home Sunday to find that Buster had returned. He mauled him with love for about thirty minutes before he was finally too tired and went to sleep.

I also was pleased to watch some former students have great success, and enjoyed hanging out with so many great people over the long weekend. It was a very well run trial with great judges, tons of help from exibitors, and a fun, positive atmosphere. Not much more you can ask for!

So next up we have two USDAA trials in March to look forward to. One of which I will be course builder for. I am going to stock up on ibuprofen.