Gemini CPE trial Saturday August 22nd

I entered Spot in Gemini's CPE trial last Saturday. We were entered in Standard, Wildcard and Snooker.

The weather was very hot and humid. I had gone over on Friday night to set up my tent and we weren't entered in the first class of the day, so I figured I didn't need to get there super early. Of course I was there before they started! So we got to settle in and relax for about 2 hours before we had to do anything.

The first run was Standard. It was a nice easy course, with three jumps to the tunnel, then the dog walk, then 4 jumps, the tunnel, the A frame and a final jump. I had planned a front cross before the dog walk. Spot took off like a shot as expected. In hindsight, I should have tried leading out. He went past jump 2, but I called him back, he made it to the tunnel, but came out so fast I didn't have time to do a front cross, or a front cross after the dog walk, so I did a flip, which is so bad, I know, but it worked. The rest of the course was fine. He was ahead of me on the A frame, but hit his contact and we finished well. This was his second Q, so now he has his CL1-S!

Next was Wildcard, which is where you choose either an A or B obstacle at three places. We had to do 2 As and 1 B. The choices were A tunnel/B A Frame, then A near tunnel entrance/B far tunnel entrance, then A single jump/B double jump. My plan was to do A tunnel, then A tunnel, then B double. I set Spot up and as soon as I took off the leash he was up. Thankfully it was to the side-so I was able to call him and start. He did the first section well, but then wandered a bit. We got all our required obstacles, but were 10 seconds over time, so no Q.

Last was Snooker. The course was challenging, for sure. The A frame was 7, but the reds were spread out, so no easy way to use it. 6 was a combo of the tunnel and a jump, where the jump was also a red, which I haven't seen before. The start line had a red jump, then a tunnel and another red jump all perpendicular, so I decided to start with a slice. Spot handled it great. He did the first jump into the tunnel, which was 3, then my plan was to do a front cross over the next red, but Spot went wide. He came back quickly and got the red, then through the tire which was 2, then another red, and my plan was to do a 180 to a jump, which was #5, but Spot ran into the tunnel, which was part of 6. I didn't want to do that, because 6 was a combo and straight shot to the A frame and I knew he would take it and have an off course. So instead of going with the flow and letting him complete 6, which would have been in the rules, I called him back, which was a fault and we were done. Oh well!

It was a pretty laid back day, hanging out with friends. Shelby was there, and I took her out a couple times. She was very good. We did have one torrential rain shower during the trial that flooded out a bunch of areas. It was so deep that several people were having their dogs swim and chase balls.