Scunthorpe

The first beautiful day of the year, wasnt prepared in the slightest, so no sun screen and due to my side fringe and wearing Peter's sunglasses all day I have a very interesting selection on red patches on my face :S, hopefully make-up will cover it for work tomorrow.

My aim for Scunthorpe with Rodney was literally just to get into the Champ final. This went crashing down when I got E'd in the jumping round lol. My handling was shocking, I just panicked every where and basically was just useless. I then went and did the graded 6/7 jumping. Where again I was terrible, prob something to do with how bad I was in the Champ but also I think it was one of those courses, where I really wasnt sure what to do handling wise and ended up doing half a job, Rodney I think still came 6th in the Grade 7 part. Well done Ian Jackson and Bobbi for winning. I think my main problem is, I keep pushing for speed, then as soon as I do this (as Lee keeps telling me) my handling goes to pot and my rounds get worse and slower. So... how to solve this problem, simply, stop handling like an idiot and trust my training. After these two rounds, I could not be bothered to do the Champ agility, I knew I would go in not care and didnt want to risk messing up my contacts by confusing Rodney. I did however care about the Cruft Singles class, I was very wide at the end, due to not signalling Rodney early enough over one of the last turns. I came out very pleased with how Rodney worked and he is for sure speeding up nicely, however thought that end bit would of cost me and didnt think we'd even get into the top 10. Luckily the end must not have been as bad as I thought, cos we finished 3rd (Lucy and Ben winning, Elaine and Dave 2nd) so I believe that is 8 Cruft points. Just need another place or two like that this year so Rods can qualify for the Crufts next March.

On to Dylon, well.. I have been training a wait all winter and can now sort of tell if he is going to wait or not. Champ jumping round, I got it wrong, put him on the start line, looked at where I was going and he was off, through the tyre, over the long jump and off to no 3, before I had chance to engage my legs, we were of course E'd, and then in usual Dylon style, he completed the rest of the course with ease. We also did the Cruft Singles, he did prob the best run he has done for me. Actually listened for once. However as we came out of the weaves, I should of sent him over a jump, however I ran off too early and he came with me, wasted lots of time there, however he still managed a 12th, clever boy.

Things to work on this week... hands up high, calm handling and continue with weave entry practise. Hopefully I can then be nice and calm for at the agility for GB show next weekend. I think Lee may slap me if I handle like I did again this weekend... I am a little scared.

xoxo