I Drove HOW Far for 2 1/2 Minutes in the Ring?

That would be about 4 1/2 hours total thank you very much.  The majority of trials I do these days are less than an hour from home but I made the exception to go up to Laramie, WY this year for one day because they were having a measuring judge.  And it was totally worth it because Strummy measured 20 7/8" for his final CMJ measurement.  SO happy for that.  At this point it's not even so much about him getting to play in Championship as it is the ability to put him in 16" Performance when he's older.  But we don't have a single Starters Standard Q so we may as well start over in Championship.  I figure it should be easy enough to get 1 leg in each of the games then if I'm still lagging behind in Standard we can play in Perf. at the upper levels that he's already earned his way into until we catch up in Championship.  Unfortunately there are only 2 USDAA trials left this year and I'm not entering either.  One is a 2 ring trial in a confined space and when I looked up some videos from Regionals at the same site last night I about had a heart attack at how close together the rings were and only some skimpy survey tape between them.  There's no way I'm taking a chance with that.  The other trial is too far and the weekend after DOCNA Champs. so I'll be too fried for a nearly 2 hour drive and overnight stay and another 2 ring trial with only survey tape for a barrier.

I had such a good time running Grand Prix though, I think the focus next year will be USDAA because the courses are interesting AND we finally get to play in Championship.  I'm especially looking forward to the International classes.  I won't go to USDAA Nationals and I don't care about titles but I'm sure I can come up with some sort of goal to keep me motivated next year.

As for the trial, on the one hand my handling felt good on the more complicated courses.  I felt some good teamwork coming through from the wee Strum man.  No bars down either!  On the other hand his contacts fell all to pieces.  0/2 on the dogwalk, 1/3 on the A-frame, even had some bad teeters.  Sheesh.  Weave poles were perfect though all entrances were very easy and after the first jump or the table so he didn't have any speed going.  Still struggling with pulling him off jumps on lateral sends.  It's a matter of figuring out how to balance those cues and it's just a matter of more practice.

Here's some video of his Grand Prix run and part of Starters Standard



I guess this doesn't look so good on paper but I don't know, the runs felt good, just little things here and there and those darn contacts.  Guess I better get back to the practice field.  If only fall would come and bring some cooler temps.

Trial Stats

No Q's or titles

Dogwalks:  0/2 (0%) 

A-frames:  2/4 (50%)

Weave entries:  3/3 (100%)  No pop-outs (Yay!)

Knocked bars:  0 (Yay!)

Teeters:  Lost track