2010 Regionals

Where to start...

We had some pretty great moments- steeplechase friday with a 5.66 yps, the saturday gamble was wicked, the saturday standard was incredible, and then It all kinda fell apart.

Sigh.

Wicca did not qualify for nationals. It's incredibly hard to even type that. To say I am dissapointed is an understatement. I mean this dog is capable of so much.

All it took was a few bobbles in each run on sunday for us to fall short point wise.

Saturday started out pretty awesome. The standard was great with just an off course due to my late lead out pivot- the rest of the course was beautiful though.

The gamble was incredible- she got a ton of points and both minis twice. And the gamble- she earned over a 100 points in that run alone.

I don't remember the jumpers course at this point but it was awful. We had three off courses and a bar....I will leave the details to your imagination.

Sunday was mostly icky. And you know what annoys me the most? I totally had those courses memorized, I felt confident in my dogs ability and my handling choices...and still..

The gamble was a disaster in the sense that she was wild and I was trying to manage that and the freakin buzzer went when I was on the other side of the ring. The gamble was super long (5 obstacles with a dogwalk) so yeah- the buzzer went when she was in the final tunnel of the gamble.

The jumpers was a super nice course and I was very excited to run it. She knocked a bar, and then I got lost near the end. I had the sense to lie her down so I could figure out where we were going so we didn't end up getting any off courses. We ended up with three bars in that run.

And the standard- the run that could have saved us. She took an off course at the beginning- which was my fault. I needed to deccelerate and give a threadle arm but I was too far behind. And then she didn't read a rear cross- backjumped (another 20) and knocked the bar. In that same run she was one of the few dogs to actually get the weave entrance, which I am super proud of. But that doesn't really change much.

The courses this weekend were pretty interesting. They varied from pretty straightforward to a little icky and technical. They were all fun though and I enjoyed the challenge. I just wish we would have done better!...

Sigh.

I still don't really believe it actually. It just seems very strange. I won't lie- it really, really sucks. Nationals is pretty much in my backyard at Spruce Meadows...it would have been awesome. And truthfully it never even occured to me that we wouldn't qualify...

But it is what it is. Whining about it isn't going to change anything.

So what now?

I am going to take some time off and re-evaluate things with wicca. I don't have the dogs entered in anything at all so at this point am just going figure out what I want to do.

Wicca is an incredible dog, or could be. :) we need to get back in the groove of things. She will get a few weeks off and then we'll go back to basics on handling. That is where the weaknesses are.

And just to be clear; all the errors were not her fault.I am not the type to blame my dog for my mistakes. This weekend was pretty well a joint effort in bad choices. I still love my dog to bits and not qualifying for nationals doesn't change how I feel about her, or myself. We both tried our best and for whatever reason it just wasn't meant to be.