This Weekend's Adventures

or our first USDAA sanctioned trial.

First off my friend John says that I do NOT update my blog enough! So I am going to make an effort to update it more and more..... Thanks John for reading it religiously!

So this was a busy busy weekend( sounds familiar doesn't it?). We had our first USDAA trial and I decided to enter both days since we were so close to home. It was held at a facility 2 miles from the house - it was so nice to be the one close to home for a change.

Saturday started out the way I had expected. We entered the Gamblers class which is where each obstacle has a point value and you get to make up your own course, but you have to rack up a specific number of points in order to qualify. You also have to finish what is called " The gamble" which is a specific set of obstacles that must be done at the finish. And the handler has to stand at a distance. It's VERY difficult to do with Reilly, but it was a good way to let him blow off steam. We got 4 points - you needed 18. But that's ok! He got to blow off some steam.

We had some good runs on Sat. Nothing spectacular, but just remember he's still learning. And we had several of our friends come out to watch and support us. Cat and John came in their "Reilly " shirts and we had a blast.

Since it was the weekend preceding mine and Cat's birthday, we decided to do our annual birthday dinner on Saturday night. Thankfully the trial ended in enough time for us to go home and get a drink before getting ready for dinner.

We went to a renowned restaurant in Atlanta called Chops. You guessed it, a steak place. I had VERY high expectations and well, I am sorry they weren't met. The food was good, but the service left a bit to be desired. Is it too much to ask to get my water refilled??? Apparently.

But we were all very tired by the time we got home and I still had to get up the next morning to run Reilly again, so we called it a night.

Sunday it was raining and then it got cold, REALLY cold. And of course, here I am in my shorts and tshirt, bc I had no idea what the weather was going to do.

On Sunday we only did 3 classes - Gambler's, Standard and then Jumpers. Reilly was full of it in Gamblers and even made the judge giggle by running over and trying to pick up the tape measure to run around with. Fortunately it was too heavy and he had to set it back down.

We got through Gamblers and Standard ok, but by the time we got to Jumpers, Reilly was done. He was cold, tired and filthy and he wanted to go home. So we got into the ring and he just lost it. So we quit with a spectacular triple jump and left the ring.

It was a difficult weekend for him - the heights were set at 26 - which he can do, but it's stressful. And there were a lot of spread jumps and difficult questions.

He was so NASTY when we got home, he got a nice warm bath and put to bed. Just like me :)

No pictures, but DH got some video, I will try to upload.

Our next trial is in 2 weeks and it's NADAC. But for John's sake I'll post before then!