Monday, January 14, 2019

GOAL!

We had our first agility trial for 2019 this past weekend.  Both boys ran very well and we achieved our agility goals for the year. My goal with Beckett was Expert Silver Jumpers and with that Silver Versatility.  That was a pretty easy goal as we finished 2018 needing only one qualifying score.  For Keltic, the goal was to get his first Masters Q.... in any event! Not really as easy as it sounds as he's been in Masters games for quite awhile now and some little bobble always seemed to happen that prevented us from getting a Q.

At this trial, I put Keltic in the first three events two Masters Gamblers and one Masters Snooker. He didn't Q in either Gamble but he ran really well for me; he almost got the second Gamble but once again would not go to the distance obstacle.  Then it was the Masters Snooker; I don't think I'd ever entered him in Snooker before, as last year I was working to get Beckett's Expert Silver Snooker. Any way, luckily this Snooker course had no weaves and no dog walk which made me think Keltic really had a good chance at a Q.

Masters Snooker 1

I originally planned to run the two of red jumps nearest the teeter using the teeter as our obstacle of choice followed by a red jump then the A-frame as our opening but a friend pointed out there was a better line to jump 2 to start the close if I finished the opening with the teeter.  So that's what we did, a red jump, then the A-frame, followed by red, teeter, red, and teeter then the close. Keltic needed to finish obstacle 6 to get a qualifying score.  The course ran beautifully until I got myself out of position after 6 and as a result did a blind cross which Keltic didn't read, leaving him on the wrong side of me for the teeter.  We got a refusal for the teeter but we had already Q'd with 41 points. We finished our run in just over 47 seconds and you have 55 seconds to collect 40 points. We would have had plenty of time to have done the teeter.

Keltic - Masters Snooker Q, his first Masters Q

Next up was Beckett, he had one Masters Snooker and two Master Jumpers events to run.  Snooker was just a warm up event for him as we arrived at about 11:45 am and it now was close to 5 pm.  Beckett ran well in Snooker getting a Q but that's not the Q I really wanted. The next event was a Jumpers, it walked really nice and ran really nice too but Beckett had the very last bar down. 

Masters Jumpers 1
It was late and I did think about going home.  The second Jumpers course while nice was a little more technical and quite similar to the first. I worried that with so few dogs in the event I would forget which course I was running and incur an off course.  I told Beckett if he was going to knock a bar to knock an early one so we could relax and run the course.

Masters Jumpers 2
I shouldn't have worried so much, Beckett ran beautifully and I didn't forget the course.  That was Masters Jumpers Q number 25 which gave Beckett his Silver Expert Jumpers and, because Beckett has three other Silver titles, his Silver Versatility title. Although we did it the hard way with Steeplechase as one of our Silver titles; in Steeplechase, you need 50 qualifying scores for Silver Expert.



Beckett - Silver Expert Jumpers and Silver Versatility
What an extraordinary way to start off our 2019 agility season!  Now though I have to come up with new goals for the year. For Keltic that's pretty easy,  a Masters Snooker title.  But for Beckett, he's a long way from any other title, so maybe it's just time to have fun and see where any Q's take us.



5 comments:

  1. Wow, that is fantastic!!! Mom wishes she were younger and could do that with us. Big congratulations!!!

    Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber

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  2. You guys are unbelievable! Congratulations!

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  3. Congratulations!!!! You already met your 2019 goals! You boys are beautiful. Katie and I did a little agility many many many years ago...but we weren't very patient about waiting our turn, and she was scared of the chute and the tire and the teeter, and it was expensive, and and and....so we didn't actually do any trials. But she did love jumps and tunnels...and running.

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  4. Wow Helen. That is so cool. Congratulations and best wishes. Go kids go.

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