Hello everyone!
In this week’s post I’ll be discussing and showing the videos of my very first agility runs with Strider that I did Memorial Day weekend 2015. The agility trial was in Pomona and I was super excited to be running at my very first one with Strider. After an entire year of training, I was finally getting to do what I had prepared and trained for, and this made me so happy and excited.
We arrived in Pomona at around 11am and I knew we would be doing some waiting around since I would be competing in the Novice classes which were the last ones of the day. I was pretty nervous all morning as I anticipated what would happen when I got out on the course with Strider. Time slowly rolled around and eventually it was mine turn to walk the Jumpers with Weaves course (JWW) that I would be running first. As I heard the judge call out “novice briefing” I made my way into the ring without my dog so that I could get to know every angle of the course and plan out my run accordingly. After listening to the judge’s brief speech, us novice competitors were allowed to spend 8 minutes walking the course. As I walked the designated course, following the numbers on the cones, I became even more nervous, but mostly out of excitement. The course didn’t seem too difficult, compared to some of the things I had worked on with Strider in the past, and this made me feel a little better.
After getting to walk the course, I had to endure some more waiting because since Strider jumps 24”, he would be going last in the Novice class. Finally, it was my turn, and I made my way to the start line of the ring and got Strider amped up and ready to run. I walked into the ring, removed Strider’s collar and we were ready to go. I was super nervous at this point, but as soon as I started running, all those nerves went away. The course and our run flew by extremely fast and about 29 seconds later, we were done. As we crossed over the last jump, I was so excited, our run was perfect and we had qualified! We even managed to get a first place! I was entirely elated after this run and I felt like I could do anything. With this in mind, I was highly anticipating our next run in the Standard ring.
Our Standard run went almost equally well, and with only a few bobbles, we were able to pull out a second place in our height division. After these two runs, I was so proud of Strider and all that I had accomplished with him. It was such a rush being able to compete and do something I love with the best teammate in the world. My first agility trial is something I will remember forever.
I hope you enjoyed this!
Happy training!
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