February 22nd, 2010 Posted in training, trials | Comments Off
Well, the NADAC trial this weekend was interesting… painful… exhilarating… frustrating… maddening. (How many gerunds can I use?)
I did a total of 15 runs and got two Qs. One in Open Jumpers, with Dancer–that’s always been her best event. One in Open Hoopers, with Dancer. Elly did three runs Saturday and I left her home on Sunday because she was clearly not feeling her best. Her brush with IBD a few weeks ago seems to have left her rather less resilient. I’m hoping she can recover her fitness.
I had fun with the Open Hoopers run. The four non-test hoops were strung diagonally across the ring, followed by the start hoop of a six-hoop test. In Elite, you have to do a six-hoop test, but it’s not required in Open. Still, it looked doable, if I could do it and still make time, which is always the challenge. I led out the entire diagonal of the ring–five hoops, so more than 110 feet–and Dancer just sat and held her stay, completely focused.
When I said “okay” she just flew through those hoops. She did the challenge, which put us in a nice position for two non-test hoops to a serpentine, which she did perfectly. One more hoop put us in perfect position facing the first hoop of the last challenge–the six-hoop challenge–and she did it perfectly. We ran toward the finish hoop and she did two hoops ahead of me, then stopped and looked behind her, at me: “that hoop? you want that hoop?” She waited for me to signal it. It was the finish hoop, and I could have done without the pause! She went through it in 39.17 seconds, just barely under course time of 40 seconds.

Flying Finish
I’ve been working on contacts for a year and a half–about as long as I’ve been working on the teeter–and perhaps as frustrating. On Saturday (in Touch and Go), Dancer leapt off the a-frame, and I sent her back up, and she came down and did a perfect full-stop two-on-two-off, which is the FIRST TIME EVER she’s stopped at a trial. Yes, it was a repeat, but still…
Then, in her regular run, she stopped on the dogwalk contact. I have proof:

Dancer stops on the dogwalk contact
I held her there so long we didn’t make time.
In our next regular run, she walked off the end of the dogwalk and I didn’t ask her to repeat it, but she got to the top of the a-frame, stopped there, and then came down slowly into the 2-on-2-off. She held it. I led out. We didn’t make time.
Sunday, though… she leapt over her contacts again in the first regular run, then stopped at the apex of the frame for a LONG LONG time in her second run. I finally had to chivvy her off, but she did stop for me. I led out and we ran straight to the last hoop and left.
Most maddening, in Open Chances, the last run of the day, she got all the distance portions of the course–and it wasn’t an easy course–then leapt over the dogwalk contact instead of stopping…
I have LOTS of work to do on training the contact, but I feel like we’ve made HUGE progress. For the first time, Dancer has some understanding that I want her to stop. She’s clearly not sure about how to deal with the a-frame contact, and she’s not thrilled about stopping on the dogwalk. But I’ve made SOME progress with my training. Some is better than none. I know what I need to work on. My plan: lots of target-plate work to really reinforce stopping and the new “yellow” (take your contact position) cue; lots of speed and distance work; lots of distraction work.
(Photos by Joe Camp, of course.)