Post date: Dec 1, 2008 10:17:22 PM
The stars aligned for an outstanding agility trial.
Rancho Murieta is one of our favorite venues. It's at the Murieta Equine Complex in a covered horse arena. Every year the dirt surface has gotten a little better, and now it's just about perfect. They've removed some of the bleachers and improved the lights. Unlike some of the other indoor arenas, RM has a good buffer between indoors and outdoors. You don't get the sharp indoor-outdoor contrasts and sun-dappled surfaces that you do in Santa Rosa (another great venue, but one in which the light has been an issue for both Touki and Trevor).
The judges were Larry Brockett and Anne McQuillen. They set an upbeat tone, and their courses were fun and memorable. Larry's Saturday Jumpers course especially was one that will haunt many who ran it. It was one of those "sudden death" courses with a low Q rate that caught up with everyone in a different place. For Touki, doom came in the form of a knocked bar. For Trevor, it was an off-course jump when I suddenly found myself out of position for a planned front cross. But even though we NQed, it was probably still my favorite course of the weekend.
I think the last few trials (lots of clean runs where we didn't make time) with Touki might have finally pushed me over the edge. Once again, I was contemplating moving her to Preferred and giving up on ever getting our MACH. Maybe that's what inspired me to throw caution to the wind this weekend. Or maybe it was Moe (Moe Strenfel, our instructor) sitting outside the ring, urging me to "play with her at the start line, don't correct her!" Maybe Touki just likes Rancho Murieta, or maybe it was the absence of grass to sniff. Maybe it was 3 days of "sit" on the table instead of "down." Maybe the judges wheeled more generously than usual. Maybe it was the cooler weather. Who knows? But in any case, Touki Qed in 5 out of 6 runs, got 2 double Qs (#31 and #32), and got the most MACH points in one trial that she's gotten since the 4-day TRACS trial last winter. Once again, Hope is Alive.
Meanwhile, Trevor is evolving by leaps and bounds. When we first started competing in AKC in mid-October, it was an adjustment for him. He wasn't used to jumping 24", he was still working through a bad Gamblers teeter experience, and he was leery of the panel jump and chute. We are still working on him getting more fast, confident, and consistent on the contacts (he still tends to stop midway down the dogwalk descent if the judge is too close, and he also tends to sight-see on top of the AF), but he has come so far so fast. This weekend he:
I'm just blown away by his maturity and poise in the ring. Now our challenge is to get a little braver and speed up--stop holding contacts for so long, set a faster pace on course, run further ahead, etc. What amazes me is that I don't feel like he has really even "turned on" to agility yet, but he is already so good and so consistent.