The agility thread

We were at A4A Bounce and Squeak yesterday. Absolute car crash of a jumping round, think he must have been eating blue smarties when I wasn't looking. He ran it as a take your own line, including almost pushing the judge out of the way to go in an off course tunnel ! Redeemed himself slightly in agility for a second, though dog walk contact didn't happen. Then won the steeplechase with a lovely round apart from a near miss with the tunnel, he stopped at my desperate "no" with his snout about an inch from the tunnel entrance. As someone ringside said , was definitely the save of the day. 😂
 
Spotherisk said:
Yes gutting, I’ve had a few training sessions from him and he’s a really nice guy - makes you run a bit though (my hamstring gave up in one of his sessions, I was literally hopping).
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Never had that pleasure as probably not good enough but seeing him about he comes across as a nice chap. I bet it was fab training though.
 
blackcob said:
Her A frame may yet be the death of me (and it was the death of *another* stride regulator) but she didn’t have a single pole down in training last night. 🙌

Training with Selena Bray this weekend for the first time.
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Unimportant but I need to know. Does she still have her sock? 😄
 
CorvusCorax said:
I really liked the look of Hoopers. Mainly the 'handler standing still in the middle' element 🤣
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One throwaway comment about hoopers and inspiration struck, I now have a bloody great big hoop assembled in my living room. It's all your fault. 😂

I haven't seen hoops used for contact training in donkey's years and have never used one previously but I'm willing to try anything at this point.
 
I’m off to my first agility camp next week - well I’m sharing a place with someone else. Looking forward to a session each day with a great trainer, and doing fun dog stuff in between.

I have nine shows booked between now and the end of March, all at the same venue - still about an hour from home, but all other venues are about two hours. I may not do them all, as spending hours at an equestrian centre in winter can be a bit soul sucking! In the meantime training is going well sometimes, of course in our team of two it is only me that gets anything wrong, Rew has it all sorted…
 
blackcob said:
Training with Selena Bray this weekend for the first titime.
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How was the training? She judged us at Norfolk Autumn and was a wonderful judge especially for the G1/2. She had a kind word for everyone and those who had a complete mare she still made time to give them some advice. Her ring ran like clockwork and finished in good time. It's the first time I've run under her and was extremely impressed. Her courses were all grade appropriate too.
 
Booked for her again next month. :)

Being honest I was a bit apprehensive as I didn't enjoy the course she set at Southam, it was too easy (IMO) for a 6-7, although she came across as a lovely judge as you say. Really enjoyed the training though, she was able to help with some obstacle discrimination issues I'd been having with the small dog and was endlessly patient with the large one. She was very pleasant, insightful and and kept to times well.
 
Sounds like it was worth it then and you found it useful 😊. I only had my youngster as Pebs had had surgery and it was a lovely course for her. I find courses vary so much these days. I know "some" deem it unacceptablento criticise courses but there really is no consistency.
 
As a G1 person for the last two years I’ve seen a real mix up of ‘is this grade appropriate?’ courses, with a lot of demoralised people. There’s one judge who I won’t enter with now, last year their g1-3 jumping had over 90% eliminations, and people still talk about the very difficult start. The video I posted above was our first ever clear round in competition, yes a simple, flowing course which made me, my dog, my friends and even the judge very happy.
 
blackcob said:
My young dog has only done three shows and in those there have been, and I am truly not exaggerating, a couple of 1-3 and 1-4 courses that I consider harder than some of the 5-7 and 6-7 courses I had on the same day. The lack of consistency is absolutely boggling.
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I 100% agree. I too look for judges that build inviting flowing courses. However not always easy. Next year I want to try a little further afield as I tend to do local shows only.

Youngster did her first indoor show on Saturday. I was really pleased as she went well in agility just pinging the see saw which she never does usually🙈. In the jumping we were both a bit tired as it was a long day and didn't concentrate as much as we could have 😂
 
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