Rio’s First Wyre

Went all the way to Preston for 2 jumping runs. I’m that desperate for agility competitions. Rio had C1-4 Jumping and G3 Jumping. I really wanted to see how she’d handle the atmosphere at Myerscough, because I wasn’t sure if it might be a bit overwhelming for her. Didn’t want to enter anything else there if she found it too much!

I loved the C1-4 Jumping course, just Rio’s kind of thing and exactly what I’d been hoping for. Unfortunately I was really late in the running order and so didn’t go to run until they were calling to the end. Apparently this was not appreciated by the ring party, who were pretty rude and demanding about my running NOW NOW NOW. I didn’t have time to warm Rio up properly, or to even look over the course before I ran. And so I made a total shambles of it! Rio was awesome, she bailed me out the whole way around and ran it beautifully. She hit the weave entry too hard and popped, and then I didn’t reset her again properly, so we picked up 10f. Oops.

G3 Jumping was a very uninspired course, exactly the same as the Small/Medium 1-2 and basically the same as Medium 1-7/Juniors. The spacing was minimum distances and the judge didn’t use all the space available. I couldn’t muster much enthusiasm and promptly got in Rio’s way, so she had a pole down, and then forgot to turn her for the weaves so she missed them completely. Took her back and she got the entry beautifully.

Super happy with Rio’s attitude and focus through the day, just those weave entries that scuppered us, and it’s something we’re working on.