State Trial Thoughts

Another state trial is done and dusted for the year.. WA had theirs last weekend, right between the Easter public holidays. The weather co-operated, more or less, although it was on the warm side (not as warm as had been forcast, it was supposed to be 31 degrees each day!)
I had decided to enter all 3 dogs. I ummmed and aaahed over Ink, as she is still getting very sore and has done very little training. Eventually I decided to run her, with the thought that it would probably be the last trial she would do for the year. Ink and Shim were both entered in only their individual classes, and I put the Red Dog in open as well.
The 1st day (Saturday) did not go particularly well, apart from Shim's nice clear in Masters Jumping, on a course that suited her well with little turns. She got 5th place, less than 0.5seconds off 1st which put her into the finals. Ink got into Excellent Jumping with a so-so run that also left her in 5th. Once again I felt she was not stretching out and running tentatively.
Red Dog had lots of errors all day long. Things that I had started to take for granted (like weave entrances) were falling apart, and bars were falling down (a theme for the weekend, unfortunately!) I am still not happy with her A-frame, so have been retraining it (again). Have seen quite a big breakthrough at home with her hits being entirely different, but as suspected this did not hold up in the ring.. (unsurprising as I was not even able to try it at training with her). She has also gone back to my parents as they are back from their extended holiday, which has of course meant less access for me to train. So Saturday was fairly dismal, compounded by some very HARD excellent agility courses.
Sunday morning she managed a nice clear to win the 3rd Open Jumping heat, so she had some finals runs after all. Sunday afternoon we had the finals, with no luck with Masters Jumping or Excellent Jumping, but Red came out and did a lovely run in the Open Jumping final (on a super flowing course), to win the class! I was especially pleased as Open is open to everyone, which meant she was running against experienced masters dogs. So Red is officially

State Open Jumping Champion (all heights) 

Here is her winning run:




Lots and lots to work on before we go over to the nationals in only 8 weeks time (eek!)
In the meantime, Ink has an appointment with Dr Glyde at Murdoch, to try (again) to get a diagnosis for why she is constantly sore. Shim will be on a rest from trialling until I get back from the nationals and over my hamstring op. Tex has started doing a little more training, when it suits him and the wind is blowing in the right direction. Has has now had 2 seizures, and been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy, yet another blow for the Kelly Dog Health camp. I am just hoping he only continues to seizure every 6 months or so, and does not need meds. Another disappointment from a registered breeder.. I really cannot win with my dogs' health! The only healthy ones don't belong to me..