Oh Yeah, You Blend

After deciding NOT to go to the trial yesterday because of weather forecasts, I woke up at 4:30 AM and thought I’d just check to see if anything had changed, it had, so I drove to the trial yesterday morning. SO glad I did! Nina ran beautifully and picked up a standard and a jumpers Q (unfortunately not on the same day), with a 50% Q rate, which is great for her. Zhora laid down a GORGEOUS standard run today, one of her best runs yet, AND if she had qualified, she would have placed second (in 12″, that’s a big deal). She knocked a bar after watching the ring crew to see if she wanted to go visit, and by the time she got her eyes back on the course, she was too close to the jump to set herself up properly. Still a GREAT run for her, especially nice after she ran like a wild animal the rest of the weekend (the extreme cold here has meant not enough exercise AT ALL). Other than driving my car into a snowdrift at the Sunset Motel last night and needing a nice gentleman named Just Warren to pull it out, it was a great weekend! Fun with good friends, and playing with my dogs! Judge Dee Crofton’s courses were challenging, Q rates were low, but they were fun.

Nina Saturday Standard (Q and 28 points):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q and 16 points):

Zhora Sunday Standard (NQ but a gorgeous run!):

Very fun trial, fun courses from Janet Budzynski, we cut the weekend short and came back Saturday again, thanks to sleet in the forecast for today. Both girls did very well, and Zhora got her working brain back on line and ran her heart out, picking up her second Master Jumpers leg and a Time 2 Beat Q. Her Jumpers run Saturday was one of her best runs to date, and would have been a Q except for handler error (I didn’t show her a jump she needed to take). Nina was wonderful.

Nina Friday Jumpers (Q and 15 points):

Zhora Friday Jumpers (Q and 5 points):

Nina Friday Time 2 Beat (Q and first place for 10 points):

Zhora Friday Time 2 Beat (Q and first place for 10 points):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (NQ but what a great run, we’re improving distance and speed!):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q and 27 points):

Zhora Saturday Time 2 Beat (NQ because of wrong end of a tunnel but a nice run):

Nina Saturday Time 2 Beat (Q and first place for 10 points):

This was the first trial in the new building, so exciting to think that this state of the art facility is our new “home” trial site!

The dogs LOVED running on the turf. The rubber infill hasn’t settled yet, so it was a bit like running in sand for the people for a few runs, but we started really feeling good running on it as the trial went on.

I came home last night thanks to scary weather predictions for today.

Zhora earned her first MACH points, Nina got two JWW runs and would have had double Q’s both days but handler error (I am sick) and a teeter fault stopped that. Zhora also suddenly remembered she is still very young and managed to squeak out a T2B Q with something like half a second remaining in time, because she just HAD to go visiting!

Zhora Friday Master Jumpers (Q and 10 points – first MACH points!):

Nina Friday Master Jumpers (Q and 16 points):

Nina Saturday Master Jumpers (Q and 17 points):

Zhora Saturday Master Jumpers (NQ but SO CLOSE):

Nina Saturday Standard (NQ but nice run):

Zhora Saturday Time 2 Beat (Q but barely, 1 point):