Onward

Keltic moved up to Advanced in Jumpers and in Gamblers so this past weekend we had to go both days to the trial. On Saturday, I just took Keltic as he only had two runs, one Jumper and one Gamblers, his debut in Advanced.

First up was Jumpers, I thought jump 3 to the tunnel would be difficult as we have't practiced rear crosses all that much yet and I also though the ending might give us some trouble too. Little did I know that the tire as the first obstacle would be the problem. Keltic went under, the back jumped it, then went under again. This time I got him back around and he finally did the tire.  The rest of the run was really nice. All the things I worried about weren't a problem. He did take down a bar at jump 17 but in all he had a very nice run.  He ran the course in 42.47, the maximum allowed time was 45 second so with all the messing around at the tire he was going well.

Next up was Advanced Gamblers, the main Gamble was A-frame to a tunnel and then another tunnel. Keltic ran the opening I had planned quite well but he wouldn't do the teeter so we will have to work on teeters again once I can get mine out into the yard.  I thought he might just do the Gamble as he likes tunnels and loves the frame. He did the frame just fine but as the second tunnel was closer to me, he didn't go out to the first tunnel so no Q there either. That was his debut in Advanced and I was happy with how he ran, the Q's will come.  We'll be doing K9 Kup again this year and a trialler's agility class  so lots of time to practice.

Sunday both Keltic and Beckett had runs. Keltic had his Starter Standard, Beckett had two Master Standards, a Master Gamblers and a Masters Snooker. Keltic again wouldn't do the teeter so, we got 20 faults for the non-completion and lots of time faults as I spent a bit of time trying to get him on it and getting him through the weaves. He has decided that he can only weave in the basement.

Beckett ran wonderfully well even though the Q rate doesn't show it.  In both his Gamblers and Snooker our openings were great, but in the Gamble he popped out of the weaves in the main gamble and in Snooker knocked a bar on the first jump of obstacle 6 (a three jump combo); we needed 6 for the Q. In his first Standard run, my front cross between jump 8 and 9 was in the wrong position and he went by jump 9.

Video of Beckett's Master Standard 3

Master Standard 4 was our last event of the day.  Our last chance for a Q. You can see in the video that Beckett was doing a bit of spinning and I was sure we had at least one refusal probably two so after the run I was a bit disappointed.  I didn't watch video right away so I packed up thinking we hadn't gotten a single Q.  Another competitor told me that Beckett was second with a Q, I was astonished but she went back to check and gave me a thumbs up.  After I watched the video, he doesn't seem to spin as much as I thought he had. For the spinning before the weaves,  the entry on the weaves were off-side so he really hadn't begun his approach to them when he began to spin and on the jump, he turned away and did one full spin but then took the jump so I guess he was just outside the last third of the approach where refusals are counted. The course time was 59 seconds and Beckett ran it in 45.39.  

Video of Beckett's Master Standard 4

I'm always happy with at least one Q so I went home happy!  I can't wait until we can get back outside to train.  Regionals is in June and at the rate the snow is melting it will be May before I can get my equipment out.  I didn't enter Keltic in Regionals but I did enter him in Jumpers at Canada Cup, what was I thinking, hopefully the tire won't be the first obstacle.