I have that song by metallica, Master of puppets going through my head. MASTER, MASTER! I fo sho got mastered this weekend. First weekend full of master's courses and I felt like a fish out of water. So weird because I did masters or P3 classes for years with Miller so it isn't like I have seen these challenges before. This is why i love USDAA though. The courses are really hard, very detailed and have a little international flair to them. There is no just getting through them safely, you have to run them and run them right or you have no chance. Anyway, I was a little worried because I have hit my third trimester and I am starting to get very uncomfortable. For whatever reason, I felt perfectly fine running but all the other stuff was the part that sucked. The sitting and waiting, the staying in the hotel, the not being able to get comfortable in the hotel bed. Luckily mom and I and Barb traveled together and we all get along great and there is 0 stress so that part was out of the picture. Had my heating pad but really didn't even need it. So, deciding to go ahead and enter a show in may and see what happens. Not traveling to Omaha, just going to enter the KC one that is 2 hours away and can pull if needed when it gets closer.
I think the biggest problem I had this weekend, other than deuce slipping a little was me not being able to get to where i needed to be or my brain quitting. I literally stepped to the line in steeplechase and my brain quit. I totally forgot what I was going to do on this tough line and I f'ed it up something big time. Tried to do two front crosses when I had no chance in hell in getting them in. Did the first one in the totally wrong place and then should have aborted to a rear as I was out of place but didn't and he missed a jump. BOOO! Needed that Q for regionals, oh well. No steeplechase for nationals unless I drag me and a newborn baby back to St. Louis in July and try again or ship him with someone. Deuce slipped in gamblers and the gamble was a weave gamble so he missed a pole:( He did come in and not take the last jump too so we probably wouldn't have gotten it even if he wouldn't have missed the pole. I was just proud i got him in the gamble successfully since there was an off course tunnel and they had to be somewhat collected to not take that tunnel and come back and get the next jump before the weaves. Standard was next and we had a little foul up right at the beginning. He didn't totally collect at the start so had a wide turn and then when I did my next front cross, he saw the weaves and looped out to them rather than coming in on my front cross. Dang 2 x 2s again makes him want weaves more than anything else. Oh well, i will take it. Then he slipped again going into the poles and I had to restart him twice. The rest of the run was of course PERFECT with him listening, having great contacts and even got a blind cross in after the a-frame. I was happy that we recovered because he tends to stress when I do anything with his weaves. I came off the course not knowing if he wasn't trying to get the weaves or what. I think what was happening was I was taking him out prior to running him and it was raining and his feet were getting wet and then he was having trouble gripping the turf but that is our routine, him go pee on something, come in and run and I don't want him peeing on something in the ring LOL.
Pairs was next and we were teamed with another red merle aussie. We had named our team Red Magic:) We actually got a Q, even with Deuce missing the entry on his weaves and bailey knocking a bar. I think we were one second under the standard course time LOL. This was the only Q we got all weekend so I guess one pairs Q down, four to go.
Jumpers was last and my brain was blown. Did a FC and took the back side of a jump instead of the correct side. Made it harder. BLEh. Then took the wrong end of a tunnel on a very tough line where he had to pull and then flip to the other end. BLEh. Finished well again but hate ending on a low note.
Day 2 had fewer runs which was probably a good thing. Jumpers, snooker and standard and not as long of a day but still a 6 hour drive to get back home. My brain again just wasn't in it and my body wasn't cooperating either. Started with jumpers and he was real loopy. Any time we would be running toward the start of finish, I seem to loose him. He would just head to the exit like he thought we were done, even though I was running laterally the other way. I think he was a little stressed because it was one of those super tough courses where you needed to have complete focus and there really wasn't a ton of room to just let them run. So it could have been a stress thing. He was still clean coming to the end despite loosing his focus a couple of times and then ran around a jump. I am kind of glad he didn't Q because it was not a good run. Very reactive, very loopy and not what I want from him or me. Snooker was next and I had what I thought was a decent plan with two sixes and a 7. Well, got the first one and a six and he back jumped the second part of the six combo. I had planned on turning him to the right and then at the last minute put in a rear cross but he was already committed to turning to the right so floated back and took what was between him and i. Totally my fault, should have stayed committed to turning him to the right. Tweet done, majorly mad at myself. I usually do well in snooker:(
Standard was the last run and I thought it was a great course, hard but tons of challenges. We had this crazy line that went all the way down the arena and needed two rears to get it correctly. Well, I said the famous word of go to get him over a jump and he went so far that he lined up with the dang weaves again so he looped towards them and by the time I got him back, he was past a jump. DANG it!
Here is a video link to most of the runs or at least their parts LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpe1-skuTF8
Had running with the devil on as the soundtrack but neither he nor i nor andrew fit the devil part:) I was behind most runs thanks to my ginormous belly but we had fun, learned a lot and will be doing more and more rear crosses as this pregnancy progresses.
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