Master Challenge wasn't much better. The one time we had done it Trix pretty much imploded and we didn't even finish the course. For two weeks I went back and forth about whether to enter the biathlon. Actually, I almost missed the closing date altogether. Given our recent success with international style course elements at the Nancy Gyes and Anna Eiffert seminars, though, I decided to give it a try, what was the worst that could happen?
The day began with an awesome gift. I finally took the plunge and decided to take Trixie over to get her last measurement for her 14" championship height card. It sounds a little ridiculous to get so worked up about a measurement but when you have a dog that's received measurements everywhere from 13.5" to 16" (yes, 16") you get a little concerned. Luckily fate/god/flying spaghetti monster was on our side and Trixie measured at 13 and 3/4". YES. Better still the judge that measured her was a CMJ. Even then it was unclear whether she would actually be eligible for 14" because she had gotten a measurement over 14". After about a dozen emails to the USDAA discussing the matter a member of the measuring department confirmed that she would be issued a permanent card. The only bummer was that I had missed my opportunity to transfer her performance titles to the championship program back in January.... So we'd have to start over from the Starters class again :/ Well at least we weren't one leg away from a PDCH or anything.
From then on I was sure the day could only go well because the permanent measurement card had already made it worth the trip. I basically skipped over to the course map pile to see what we'd be facing that day.
Master Challenge jumpers was our first course - might as well start with the hardest, right?
I was pleasantly surprised by how do-able the course was. Sometimes MC courses are just ugly and don't have any flow to them at all. As a friend of mine so aptly put it "Sometimes USDAA's master challenge isn't international, it's just annoying." The only "annoying" piece - at least at first glance - was 6-7. How in the world was I going to get there? Sure, I could just jog Trix around #4, but what kind of flow is that? Thankfully this was a course that looked a lot better when it was set up than it did on paper.
There were two main ways that handlers approached getting their dogs from #6 to #7. Many, including myself, opted for a front cross on the landing side of #6, which actually worked quite nicely because #4 was a lot closer to #6 than it seemed on paper, so getting to 7 wasn't as hairy as I originally thought. Most handlers, though, chose the shorter path - they ran straight from 6-7. That method seemed like it involved a lot of hoping and praying to me, but some teams really did it beautifully.
Another tricky area of the course was the #4 backside. At first, I thought I'd front X on the landing side of #3 to present the backside, but I saw A LOT of dogs run for the weave poles. I was fortunate, however, to see Karen Holik run the course with her 14" sheltie, Ice, before I walked it and I noticed that she pushed to the backside of #4 by going the long way. I'd be lying if I said that it didn't completely blow my mind when I first saw it but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. The dogs just got such a nice entry to the weave poles that way and it gave the course a nice flow.
The rest of the course was actually straight forward and most handlers made the same decisions - a FX after 9, blind/FX after the tunnel, then keep the dog on left for the rest, perhaps with a RX at the end. What caused problems for people was #13. None of the dogs refused the jump, but most assumed that they were going to the tunnel afterward and so when they realized that they were not, in fact, headed in that direction, they took the bar down while adjusting their line. On the actual course it seemed like #13 was a little further back than it is in this diagram, meaning that handlers almost had to treat it like a backside jump.
Overall, this course was pretty rough and not a lot of dogs ran it clean - but Trixie and I did! Woot :D Not only that, we won the class. Once again Trix decided that start lines were for squares... *sigh* Of course I don't have any of this run on video, but that's okay.
Next up was steeplechase semifinals.
Yeah! A speed loop :D Sometimes a good sprint is just awesome and that's exactly what this course was. I front crossed only twice in 19 obstacles, but still loved it even though it was simple.
The course ran beautifully and was very true to the map - except for 1-4 which ended up being a much straighter line than it looked on paper.
Trix finished 3rd. 2 seconds off of 1st and 0.5 seconds off of 2nd. For such a straight course I felt pretty good about those time disparities because Trix is usually much slower than other speedy dogs (read: shelties) when there's a course as straight as this. I hoped that finals would be a bit more technical to give us an edge.
Last up was grand prix round 1:
By this point it was about 3 o'clock and I was feeling pretty tired. Trixie and I had a bye into the grand prix final tomorrow so I figured I'd at least walk the course just so I could check it out. I ended up scratching Trix, though, because she tires pretty easily and I wanted her to be as on her game as possible for tomorrows runs.
I dropped the dogs off at our hotel and then my mom and I went out for sushi - which was great.
*Food Porn Warning*
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