House League

was a hoot! Started out with a speed game, snakes and ladders, which involved a down and back course of jumps, frame, walk and weaves - four columns - and 60 seconds to get as far as you could. If you reached the end and still had time, you would start back tracking. Points were given - 1 jump, 2 tunnel, 3 tire, 4 aframe, 5 dogwalk, 7 weaves - and no faults for refusals or retakes, just loss of time. Sophie was HOT, finishing the first go-round and getting about 3/4 of the way through the loop back. We ended up with 57 points and 3rd place for this game. Most importantly, she was driven and focused on the course and my direction and didn't blink at the ring crew or the judge.

Next up was steeplechase, and we back slid a bit - tired? a bit lost? maybe. She drifted off a few times and I ended up calling it a training run and rewarding her three times, and finished the course.

Standard was the third run - a twisty complicated course which actually worked very well for us. Took a long time breaking the course down during the walk through, doing the visualisation, the two walkthroughs (one for soph, one for me) and then breaking the course into manageable chunks. And that really seemed to work - I kept communicating with soph throughout, calling her well in advance, keeping on top of her turns and giving enough time for her to find the path successfully. We finished with 5 faults and a time of 1:24:03, ending up in 10th place.

So at the end of the day what was learned:

- the revving up and tugging at the start is really helping - we will need to work on her out and leave it.

-communicate throughout - she has amazing obstacle discrimination and we need to use that more. Call out the turns well in advance.

- really, really take lots of time to memorize the course and my strategy. Walk it for soph and then for me, twice if time permits, and then visualize each section. Don't rush this! Webb's suggestion of chanting the course (jump jump frame front cross to tunnel) as you visualise really helped me during the standard run.

and have fun!

At the end of the day, Soph and I were proud to be awarded the "Most Improved" prize and we will certainly enjoy our festive red/green tennis ball!