BARC NADAC Fall Trial Recap

In another example of my continuous blog fail whale-ing, I just realized that I never posted about the dang NADAC trial that Cedar and I attended a few weeks ago. *facepalm*

Which is weird because...

If I had to describe the trial in one word, it would have to be AMAZEBALLS.

Photo by TSB, not at the trial. 

Cedar was incredible, and even though we've had trials where we earned more Q's, I have never felt as connected with her in a trial before. Cedar was focused, in the game, and a team player for EVERY RUN. That has literally never happened before. Those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile know about our struggles with weave poles and keeping connected on course. These issues have cost us many Q's and for me, a LOT of frustration. At one point, I almost quit agility because it just wasn't fun anymore. But over the past few months, Cedar has really started growing up, mentally. It's about time, she IS five after all :P

Another photo by TSB, not at the trial. 

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. See how well we stay connected for the entire run? Love this. This was one of our Elite Jumpers runs... it was a Q/1st and we also earned a leg or points or whatever towards Cedar's Platinum Speed Star :)



Were all of our runs perfect? No. Sometimes Cedar messed out, and sometimes (okay, most of the time LOL) the NQ was my fault. Some of our qualifying runs had little bobbles, like a weave popout or a spin or a wide turn.  But Cedar really held her own... and I found, over the course of the weekend, that I was so much better able to handle our "failures" when I was running with a true teammate :).

Here are a few more runs that I particularly liked (not all of them Q's).

Novice Weavers-- Q/1st (second leg WV-N)
We just started showing in weavers again. I stopped originally because Cedar was having trouble with her weave poles and I wanted her to only see 12 poles every time she stepped in the ring at a trial. But now she's matured enough that  it hasn't been an issue (knock on wood LOL). 



Elite Regular, Round One (Friday)-- NQ (bailed off contact)
I called her too hard (with both my vocal command and my body language) and pulled her off the A-frame midway. Dang! But I do so love this run. 



Elite Regular, Round One (Sunday)-- Q/1st! 
Almost perfect except for her weave pop-out and a few wide turns. I love her tunnel/dog walk discriminations!!! 



Open Touch N Go, Round Two (Saturday)-- Q/1st!
In Round One, Cedar had taken the off-course tunnel option instead of the dog walk, and I really wanted this Q. Somehow I made my front cross, even though Cedar ended up bumping into me a little bit. I wish that part would have been a little smoother, but overall I'm really pleased with this run. Cedar was hauling ass, and I did a good job of keeping up with her. 



Open Hoopers (Friday)-- Q/1st/New HP-O!!
A few bobbles because I couldn't remember where the heck I was going, but good enough for a Q and new title! :P



Overall, this was one of my favorite trials ever. We ended up with 9/18 Q's, and finished two titles, in Elite Regular and Open Hoopers. Hopefully we'll be able to chase that NATCH next year!  I love NADAC!

One last photo... taken by TSB, not at the trial, but still awesome :P