Another Ontario Regionals has been put to bed. The rain, wind, hail and 9 degree temperature made us all very grateful for the bit of blue sky we saw on occasion on Sunday afternoon.
Our championships up here in Canada are geared towards consistency across the Jumpers, Standard and Gamblers classes. I tend not to work Gamblers too much at home, so my focus is always to do well in the regular classes. I have been doing more distance work at home but trying to balance with close work as to not lose what I have in my handling relationship with my dogs. Remember balance.
Well, we had an outstanding weekend in the regular classes with either Encore or Feature winning all of the 26″ Jumpers and Standard classes and Feature winning the Steeplechase finals as icing on the cake (Encore ran in 22″ and had a bar in the finals).
However my lack of focus showed with Feature in Gamblers where I tried mini gamblers (not a good plan with a dog that has had less than 5 months of showing). If I had been more patient and just tried to accumulate points she would have been the overall winner as well. In the end she was 2nd place in the overall championship, 1 point behind Tiffany Salmon’s great (world team) dog “Rio”. In 6 classes Feautre had 2 1st place finishes, 2 fourths and only 1 fault (knocking one of the last bars of her last round of the weekend).
I didn’t bring along my re-charger for my video but Lynda’s husband, Johnnie-videographer-“Spielberg,” caught my runs for me. This is one of my favourites
Last year I had to sit out the Ontario Regionals as my back went out and for a full week I couldn’t walk without the use of a cane. Even though this past weekend we had to ran in mud, rain, hail and freezing temperatures; I am happy and grateful to report all is well with my health. God is good:)!
Glad you liked my “buck fever” idiom. I’m from South Africa so it’s a pretty common idiom in my community.
Your advice on overcoming performance anxiety is spot on!
I teach public speaking to lots of high school students. While there’s no substitute for practices and rehearsals I’ve found you really need to go out of your way to build up experience participating in competitions. There’s just no substitute.
The competition experience is distinctly different from refining and honing your skills in practice. So, be sure to include participating in warm-up competitions to condition yourself before showing up at the main event.
It was a blast seeing run in an actual class (actually several), this last weekend. It was an education each time you went out. Linda showed me the VALUE of directionals on one of her runs– Even though I train with Christine I don’t see her run often- she showed me sportsmas (womans) ship- and patience and a good sence of humor. Which I beleive everyone should have a bit more of in this sport…
Hey Susan, that run with feature is truly a “thing of beauty” to quote yourself. I would love for you to comment or write about start line stays. I noticed that Feature was patting the ground with her front feet as you were leading out. Is this something that she typically does or was this more about the fact it was regionals and a bit more exciting than a normal trial. I have been really struggling with this issue with Leica and working very hard to get her to stop the front foot movement, but I am having my doubts about weather she ever will. She does not scootch forward, just pads her front feet a couple of times as I lead out. If I let this continue at trials, will it lead to scootching down the road? I am hoping if I keep the criteria of no movement at home that she will eventually stop at trials. Is this a pie dream, am I fooling myself (I am good at that ya know)?
Congrats Susan!
Great job!
Loved the video especially Feature’s bounce into the tire!!!!! That Susan Salo stuff really does work!!!! LOL
Do you have one of those buttons………” That was easy” Congrats!!! Just amazing……..You were really running………Great going!!!!
Congratulations on an incredibly successful weekend. Your runs with both girls were breathtaking — literally!
I must say that I was in absolute awe of your runs with Feature. I think I held my breath for the duration of each one of them (fortunately they were very fast runs!). There’s something scary about all that power! Your runs with Encore were spectacular as well. Congratulations on such a fantastic and successful weekend!