It doesn’t have to be perfect to be great

We had an agility trial today. It was a bit special to begin with as this trial was originally scheduled for late last year but was rescheduled due to the bushfires that caused extensive damage in the lower Blue Mountains where this club is placed. In the irony that is Australian weather the trial was relocated late Friday afternoon after the grounds where the trial was meant to be held on were closed due to all the rain we have had in the last fortnight. If it isn’t fire it is floods!

So with that starting point of appreciation we went into today to have fun and enjoy the positives. And that is what we got. There might not have been any clear runs and qualies but lots of stuff went right.

– In Novice Agility I got my weaves, my contacts on A-frame and dog walk, stopped and waited on the table and only had 1 bar down. While we did DQ with a little off course thanks to mum’s handling it was a run with lots of good bits to celebrate.

– Next up was Open Jumping. Now this course is a bit harder in the course layout and also has a bit that I need to do at a distance from mum. Again I got my weaves and only dropped the 1 bar. I gave the distance a good shot but came in towards mum a bit early. Oh well we kept running and had a great time. We will worry about our Open quallies later.

– Our 3rd and final run for the trial was Excellent Jumping. This has been a step up for us with our 1st JDX runs last weekend. Mum was stoked at this run. After deciding I wasn’t going to wait at the start this year I actually did in this run. The first stretch of the course was a little off centre on the 3rd jump but I got it. We also put in a Jaako-blind towards the end and had a great run home. The 1st bar dropped… But only just. Mum mistimed a cue on a challenging part of the course that got as a refusal but otherwise it felt like an awesome run. We were lucky enough for a friend to tape it for us so here it is if you want to watch.

So while not a day of perfect runs and a bunch of quallie cards it was a day of runs that felt great. Agility is a strange sport like that. There are times when despite lots of hard work those clean runs just don’t happen but there still feels like lots to celebrate.

So of course I came home and celebrated with a snooze.

l