EMDAC April 08

Arg, what a horrible weekend. It’s weekends like this that make me want to walk away and not bother any more!

Kim

Saturday didn’t start well, Kim was very flat in her Clockwork Tunnels and it basically got worse from there! We didn’t get a decent clear round until the last run of the day in Helen Norton’s lovely Primary Jumping class, but I knew we weren’t going to get placed as it was too open and fast for Kim. She also decided to throw in a few spins because I wasn’t keeping up with her! She ended up 18th, which I was quite disappointed with to begin with. I later found out that Lucy, who is usually top-3 if she has a good run, did a blistering clear and only managed 14th. Didn’t feel so bad after that!

That kind of set the standard for the classes though on Sunday. All the Primary courses were big, open, fast-flowing courses, lots of straight lines and big turns. Not great for my whippety Medium! Kim gains her times on sharper corners and fiddley bits, but we had none of it. My intention for Sunday was just to get her running and responsive again, which we did achieve. Her first class was agility – without an Aframe! – and I knew she wasn’t going to be quick enough even if we went clear. She doesn’t have a fast see-saw and she doesn’t have quick enough weave times, so I chose to go out and let her blast it, see what time she could get. I didn’t try to stop her on the contacts and she blew her dogwalk by miles, and we finished about 6 seconds off the winner. To be fair to Kim, she did come to a complete standstill at one point, for which we were given a very harsh refusal (several people commented on it later and said how mean it was!) but she would still have been 2-3 seconds off the winning time. Perhaps if there had been an Aframe we might have had more chance, but no such luck.

We had the same problem in the rest of her classes – too open and too fast for Kim. Her jumping run was very rough, and although her Helter Skelter was smooth, she checked her stride and turned too wide on the smaller circle, which left us nearly 5 seconds off pace. Even if she hadn’t checked or turned tighter we still wouldn’t have been in the places.

Pretty disappointing overall. The standard was very high in Primary this weekend and Kim just wasn’t quick enough over the style of courses that were on. We barely picked up any League Table points either.

Dylan

Dylan had tougher courses than Kim all weekend! Not beyond his capability and not too difficult for Introductory, and they all flowed nicely. Some tight spacings for my lanky boy but he showed he’s been paying attention and actually bounced a couple of sections!

Amazingly Dylan was also the one who brought home some rosettes this weekend. I was amazed! Especially considering how the weekend started, when I had to pull him out half way through his Agility run because he was so freaked out by the dogwalk. I also decided not to run Power and Speed with him, as I thought the spacings were a bit tight for him and I wanted to get his confidence back up. I know from training that he shuts down easily if he thinks he’s done something wrong, his self-confidence can be a bit lacking. For the Intro Jumping (Part 1) I tried to get him a bit more wound up, and we actually got around clear! It was a bit slow and he was still quite uneasy, but I was partying our way out of the ring. At which point the ring manager appeared and told me that sadly the timer hadn’t stopped so he’d have to run again for time. I’ve never had this happen before when running Kim so I had to get it all explained to me. So off we went again! We did slightly better the second time but Dylan was still being ultra-cautious with his jumping and he didn’t feel to be going anything like his normal speed. Still, we went clear again so another big party! Amazingly we came 16th in this class, just 4 seconds off the winner and 2 seconds off a dog (Rada the Wiemie, for those that know her!) who I know to be fantastically quick and who has won several classes already this year.

Clockwork Tunnels I thought was a tough course for Dylan, mainly because the end was very tightly spaced. He ran the first 8 obstacles at super-speed, which I was thrilled about, but then we both got a little confused because I couldn’t remember the course and he wanted to go back in the tunnel he’d just been through. Still, clear round! And then (deja vu!) the ring manager appeared. The timer hadn’t started. Two different timers on two different rings! So we ran again, and again the first 8 obstacles were brilliant. But this was Dylan’s 5th run of the day and he was one tired boy, and he slowed right down for the final couple of jumps. We still managed to finish 17th, and if he’d have been in Part 2 (same course) he’d have been 5th. The boy has potential!

Sunday was equally successful in terms of clear rounds – we went clear in the agility (with held contacts) and clear in the Jumping again (finishing 19th, I think, but with a couple of “refusals” which don’t get marked in Intro classes). Our absolute best run of the weekend was in the Intro Helter Skelter, where we were E’d after the second jump but Dylan was full of confidence and really enjoyed the course. It was the first time I felt like he was really up for it and motivated, but he still wasn’t going anything like as fast as he works at training.

Dylan and I also spent a bit of time in the practise ring and I was really pleased with him. He loves his contacts with a passion! Every time I took my eye off him for a second he was standing in his 2o/2o on one of the obstacles, doing his cheeky grin and waiting for his ball. We also worked on 12 weaves with wooden poles, and he’s really powering through them. Powering a bit too much actually! He’s popping the last 1-4 poles occasionally, I think mainly because he hasn’t worked out how to keep up his speed without tripping up (or so my observant Emma tells me!).

Generally pleased with Dylan though, he’s showing a lot of potential!

Got to say well done to Vicki with Pippa and Inca, who picked up loads of places all weekend, and to Laura with GorgeousMerlin and her baby girl Minnie who had an amazing first show and pulled off a 5th, despite her tiny Micro legs, amongst a handful of other placings.