Monday, April 25, 2011

Summit wins Grand Prix and earns a BYE for the SC Regional

Well it was a successful trip to Utah. Summit earned that last Steeplechase leg to finish qualifying for nationals and he won Grand Prix - earning him a bye to round 2 at the South Central Regional in May - woohoo!!!!

The trial was held outdoors on grass. We got lucky and the weather was almost perfect! Friday Summit had nice runs but for one bar in all 4 classes. The grass was thick and the ground very uneven; there were hills and dips and if there was a low-spot before the jump, the dogs were jumping higher. By Saturday he had figured it out and only dropped one bar. Sunday he had no bars.

I really missed Soleil! She has one more week to go and then she can start going to trials with me again. We have next week off and then three USDAA trials in a row. FRAC in Brighton, ACAT in Pueblo, and then the South Central Regional in Ft. Worth, TX. 

Meanwhile I'll continue to work jump grids twice a week with Mr. Summit as well as jump sequences with variable jump heights (20", 22", and 24") and variable spacing.

Here is Summit's Grand Prix video. The weaves were really off set from the teeter so you had to push your dog out to get the entry (some dogs missed the entry). I also took a step past the weaves in order to set a nicer approach over the jump as well as the approach to the following jump. Some dogs got the tunnel after the a-frame. I made sure I was moving laterally towards the jump after cueing the aframe. I could have cued a much tighter turn over the jump but with the uneven ground, decided to be more conservative and give him plenty of room.



Masters Jumpers - 4th place


Steeplechase Finals - 1 bar, 7th place


A fun Snooker course with pushes to the backside of the jumps

5 comments:

Diana said...

Whoohoo!!!! Congrats, thats awesome!

Chris and Ricky said...

Congratulations!!! What a great trial weekend for you guys! I love that outdoor venue too.

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

YIPPIE, check out that startline in Grand Prix,awesome, beautiful run...gorgeous run in the jumpers, love that rear cross-beautiful, you guys look all ready for the more European courses with those push backs, looks like you had a great weekend and congrats on your Bye-you guys are so awesome!!!

Elayne said...

Nice runs! Congrats on the bye and the final Q. Probably feels good to have that out of the way, now you can enjoy the summer trials without worrying about the q's.

Christine said...

That is great news, congratulations :-)