We made a little stop on the banks to take some pictures with the photo op thingy.:)
It was a great way to spend the morning. If only all work days could start off like that!
It was a great way to spend the morning. If only all work days could start off like that!
Sunday morning came all too early and we loaded up for the second day of the trial. It didn't rain too hard on our way up, so we made pretty good time.
First run of the morning was Jackpot and I was again excited to go! The send portion was definitely doable as long as I maintained momentum and I knew that we could get the opening points. As we were finishing up our opening section waiting for the buzzer to go off so that we could do the jackpot (this was a traditional Jackpot and we needed to wait for the closing buzzer to attempt it), the timers started yelling out something about the time and we were just waved on to do the jackpot. So we did, and nailed it!! Once we were done, I learned that there was a problem with the timer and it hadn't actually started. Our judge (one of my favorite CPE judges, Cheryl Huffman) had them keep the points we earned for the jackpot, but asked us to redo the opening. I was more than happy to do that. Heffner was still up for it and seemed happy that we got to play more on the course. We ended up accruing more points the second time around and nailed back to back weaves! We started off the morning with a lovely qualifying run and a first place finish.:o)
Next up was Standard. We had kind of an off run. It was decent, but Heffner just seemed a little off and knocked two bars. We're only allowed one knocked bar for Standard, so no Q there. He got some extra stretching out time and neck rubs after that run because I was a little concerned that maybe he was feeling a little stiff. We had some time before our next run, so we both dozed inside while the other levels run and the courses were changed around.
Next up was Wildcard. I had a plan for avoiding as many tunnels as I possibly could. Unfortunately, the requirements for the course were such that I couldn't avoid doing at least one. But if I could pull Heffner off the tire and get him to take the left jump instead of the right jump that was RIGHT in front of the tire, we would only have to take one tunnel. You probably already guessed it. He took the right jump and we had to do two tunnels. But he did great and thankfully I had planned for the possibility that that would happen and was able to switch gears. I've had problems with that in the past and thanks to me, we've missed out on qualifying. This time though, we qualified and took first place!
The last runs of the day were Snooker and Jumpers. First up was Snooker. As long as we kept our reds up, I had plotted a course to get us our points and avoid as many tunnels as possible. And we did it! As soon as we got our last points, it was time for Heffner and I to race towards the table! He was all too happy to sprint with me (okay, so it was mostly ME sprinting) across the ring toward the table to end the time. We qualified, but took second place.
Final run of the day was Jumpers. At this point, I could tell that Heffner was starting to get tired. And I couldn't blame him, I was pretty beat as well. The Jumpers course was another nice course and I didn't see to many problems. We sailed through it with a clean, qualifying run and took second place.
As you'll see in the video (I forgot to mention that while I was taking stock of the situation I was also taking out my camera and preparing to get some pictures/video), Bess seemed a lot more oblivious to the horses than Heffner. Heffner wasn't really sure whether to chase them or hang back. He's smart and realized that he was out numbered and wasn't about to give chase unless Bess was crazy enough to.
Here's a picture of the herd:
I have to admit that the dogs were actually pretty well behaved. In the picture above that I took with Heffner's head in it, he was standing next to me voluntarily. I wasn't hanging on to his collar. Eventually Bess caught on to the fact that there were horses right in front of us. Then both dogs took up a position of watching and waiting. I'm pretty sure that they were both waiting for the horses to make the first move.
Gradually more and more horses stopped grazing and brought their heads up to watch us. Once the horses broke and started casually trotting away, the dogs were off! Bess did a nice big loop of the herd and I think was just getting her rocks off chasing them period. Heffner chased for a bit and then realized it was a lot of effort to continue chasing these big beasts that were faster than him (once they started galloping) and jauntily trotted back to me as the victorious perimeter guard that he is. After Bess had a good run, I called her back and she happily came running back to us with her tongue flapping all the way out of her mouth. She was just plain pleased with herself!
The rest of the hike was uneventful, but gorgeous. Here are the rest of the pictures that I took along the way:
Our total hike time was a little less than three hours. Once we got back to the truck, I pulled out my camp chair, a book, and relaxed in the sunshine for a bit. The dogs lay around me and soaked up some rays. After about a half hour, I started to get chilled though. While temps in the low 50's are great for when you're hiking and getting that blood pumping, they're not as much fun when you're sitting around not doing a whole lot. So I packed the dogs up and we headed home.
I spent the rest of the evening with Adam seeing Red and grabbing a little bite to eat. Good movie, and a relaxing end to the day. Except that once I got home, I remembered that I had four ginormous cow livers sitting in the garage that were completely thawed and waiting for me to cut up. That took about an hour and a half. Once I showered the raw meat smell off of me, it was off to bed and pleasant dreams of actually getting to sleep in on a Saturday morning!