CPE Day 1 Not A Blue Day

SUMMARY: Hot. Qs. Ribbons.

It's 5:30 right now and it's 96.6 (36.1) in San Martin. It was hot. Being under cover in the shade was good, and the slight breeze that kept air moving was good, but it. Was. Hot. And being covered with horse arena dust didn't help. In my brown blue jeans. Brown black running shoes. Brown legs. Brown arms. Constantly wiping off the brown white score table.

Yech bleah. I still need to take a shower but I'm thinking of waiting for it to cool a few more degrees here at home, too.

I think the trial ran pretty well and people seemed to be in a good mood despite the heat. That always makes things more bearable. 

Out of 10 runs, we brought home only one blue ribbon today. And this is CPE! I had hoped for more. The issues were:

• Both my dogs are competing in the same group now, so even if one of them gets a blue, the other won't.
• Both my dogs are competing against the Amazing Chaps who always competes with Tika  for fastest time/highest points, and now both dogs are competing against Chaps, so....
• If I make one mistake in handling, boom, we miss the blue ribbon.
• Tika's just not managing to keep up with Chaps in speed. Dang these young dogs. ;-) (Chaps is two and a half years younger, but until the last year, that didn't seem to matter much.)

What we got was one 1st, four 2nds, one 3rd, and three 4ths (out of 5 to 7 dogs).
Tika Qed 5 for 5; Boost 3 for 5.

The rundown:

• Standard: Both Qed, Tika won, Boost 2nd by 2.5 seconds--could have something to do with me overcalling her when trying to wrap a jump and pulling her off it, so we had to make another pass at it. Also, Chaps wasn't in this class.
• Wildcard: Tika Qed and 2nd (to Chaps, by 3.5 seconds! Nothing major in our run, I don't think, just some hesitation and wide turns. Boost knocked a bar and was less than a second slower than Chaps--could be the stopping-on-contacts thing that we do.
• Full House: This is the class I love and always go for Highest Points At Entire Trial with both dogs. Both dogs Qed. Unfortunately, with Boost I bobbled a weave pole entry, wasting time, and so for our last 5-point jump, the whistle blew as Boost took  her last stride towards it. So 4 points behind, yes, Chaps, giving Boost 2nd place and I think 2nd highest in the trial. As for Tika-- (a) Handling error took her on an odd & confusing & time-wasting path, and then (b) she left me to go sniff at something on the ground in the ring that the previous 2 dogs had also gone sniffing at and even eating. I managed to get her back, but we Qed with the only minimum points needed, ouch!
• Colors: Tika Qed and 2nd place, 2 seconds slower than Chaps. Boost--I tried a serpentine and thought she was committed but moved apparently too soon and she took an off course jump, so no Q.
• Jumpers: Both dogs Qed, but handling errors also pulled both dogs past a jump (different one for each) that I had to rescue and bring them back around. So TWO dogs beat us--Chaps and Brenn (I've talked about Brenn beating us before, too). Boost 3rd, 1.5 seconds behind Chaps and only eeeeeeek 0.1 seconds behind Brenn; Tika 4th at 3.5 seconds slower than Boost!

And there ya have it.  I thought the courses were pretty good--challenging without being impossible, yet fairly smooth even so.

Weather Underground says "Tomorrow is forecast to be Much Cooler than today." (Which, at the moment, seems to be a predicted 88 F (31.1C). We all sure hope so!