It's USDAA Time Again, Boys and Girls

SUMMARY: Another weekend of fun in the sun.

I am feeling more optimistic about the weekend than I have in a long time. A mere two weeks of Boost running nicely in class has probably raised my hopes beyond what I can rationally expect, but at least I'm not dreading our time in the ring like I so often do lately on Friday evenings.

Other than working on nose-touches to targets, the only other thing I've done with Boost this week is to run her full speed in a circle, sending her ahead of me. Just two curved tunnels at either end of the yard, with two jumps on one side of the yard and two on the other--not in direct straight lines, and not perfectly straight, but enough so that it's possible to just keep going comfortably in a loop...tunnel jump jump tunnel jump jump and la la la like that.

Did that four days this week with her, twice each day, each about 2 to 4 times around the loop, fast as we can go. She'd been turning back at the one difficult tunnel entry several times, but fewer and fewer with each repetition. And today she didn't knock any bars, either!

Sooooo, welllllll, we'lll seeeeeeee...

It should be a quick weekend-- the usual 6 classes on Saturday (in 2 rings), but only 4 on Sunday (plus Steeplechase Round 2). They're expecting to be done by 1:00 or so. Wouldn't that be nice, to be home and still have the afternoon free?! Oh, I hope I hope I hope! I *so* did not enter the extra fun match run that they added for Sunday afternoon.

Possible titles:

• Boost needs 2 Standards for her Standard Ch Bronze (15 total)--same 2 she's needed for ages. Two chances this weekend. How'd we get 13 and can't get any further? .....
  ...Oh, I can tell you how. Looking backwards, in reverse chronological order: 6 NQs, 2 Qs, 9 NQs, 1 Q, 11 NQs, 1 Q,  17 NQs, 1 Q...[stops there]   Hmm, that's painful, but could it be that we're getting better?
• Tika needs 1 Snooker for her Snooker Ch Silver (25 total). Only one chance this weekend. We haven't been doing as well in Snooker this year--IN 2010, Qed 15 of 25 (60%), 8 (32%) of which were SuperQs; 9 of 16 (56%) this year, but only 3 (19%) were SuperQs.
• Tika needs 1 Jumpers for her Jumpers Ch Silver (25). Two chances.

Hope you're all having a lovely saturday, sleeping in, enjoying the 90+ degree heat or hurricane [choose your favorite weather extremity], and lounging with your furbeasts, while I'm out at 5 in the morning, alongside the cool coast, running my dogs and through the magic of Blogger posting this while I'm miles and hours away from my computer.