This was Breeze's first trial with any contacts so I was not sure how things would go. This was her first USDAA trial, and it was the first time either of us have run anything like gamblers or snookers together, and first time Breeze ran under this type of cover, and only our second trial on packed dirt, and I have to say this snookers course was a bear, not at all like I would think a starter snookers course should be. There were two combo jumps, and the angles were really hard and a lot of running. In addition to everything else it was a very hot day, but southern CA in the summer-who would have figured that?
We got to do our first gamblers run at 9 am, wow, how weird was that after doing AKC where we do not even get to check in until noon? That was great to run so early and helped with the stress level a LOT.
Gamblers gives you a certain amount of time for an opening and you can design your own course, you need to be by the first obstacle for the gamble when the whistle blows, so you can start your gamble. The gamble is the numbered end part of the course that you need to complete from behind a line.
So I had no clue how fast Breeze would run, and I did OK, my course I planned was to the teeter the second time. If I had gone there and to a jump like I had planned I might have got into better position, but the horn blew while I was on the Aframe a second time. I had a bucket load of points but Breeze got frustrated and was just totally handler focused, so I could see it was going to go no where and just tried to get her out of the ring. I have done so much work on teaching her to look at my body language that the fact she did not want to send out was not that big of a deal, but her being that handler focused was not so good. She did ok on her contacts for a first time and she was happy and so all in all I am very pleased.
The snookers course is a game where you take a red jump, then if you complete it successfully you can take any other obstacle, then you take a red jump, and can take another obstacle, take your third red and take another obstacle then you can start your closing which is a numbered course from obstacle 2-7. This particular course had a 6a and 6b, and a 7a and 7b, which meant you had to complete both of those things to count as one obstacle. Snookers makes you think on your feet because you design your own course but if you drop a red bar you have to run and find another red, and if you mess up you have to figure out where to go. This was a really hard course for a starters course. Anyway, Breeze held her start line stay and it was later in the day and I thought she was really tired and so I was suprised at how she shot off the line, LOL. Her poor Aframe contact had deteriorated pretty bad by the end,.....and we did really good through the opening, ...we made it through and then started our closing, we got to number 4 which was a jump we had to wrap and Breeze back jumped so we got whistled off the course. Anyway, we got through I had planned Breeze to go through the tunnel instead of the Aframe the first time, so when she went over the aframe I adjusted really quick to just start my closing.
All in all a GREAT day and I had a lot of fun. I GOT SO MUCH INFO this weekend and Breeze has really clued me in on where I need to train and what we need to keep working on and where we are going right, so how could someone complain about that? My training Buddy Denise actually came an hour and a half drive, and got to the trial at 7:30 to cheer me on, video and lend support. It was great and the whole day would have been so boring without her, she is always the best company. It really made me feel good she would do that for me.