A Mistake A Piece

Team Marge's successful streak hit a bit of a bump yesterday, when both members of our team had one mistake each.

Our Standard run was Marge's first run of the day (I had already run Arrow in Jumpers, where we took one lonely bar down).

The course was tough, with some questionable obstacle approaches and a really hard end line.  The qualifying rate was very, very low.

Our run started out fine as we passed our first big challenge, a flip in to a tunnel, without an issue.  We continued until we reached the teeter.  Marge barreled up it and then leaped from the center.  If you watch the video closely, you can see the judge tilt her head, probably thinking about whether to mark it a failure or not.  I'm not sure if Marge had a foot in the yellow contact zone at the end of the board or not.

The table came directly after the teeter.  Great, a place to stop and regroup... or not!  Marge hopped on the table and hopped immediately off.  And that's what we NQ'd on.  A table fault.  UGH.

The rest of the run was okay... not wonderful, but okay.  Marge keeps coming off of her A-Frame prematurely, which I do not like.

Then, in Jumpers, I was confident that we'd at least pick up some points, since we wouldn't walk away with a double Q on the day.  I guess I was too confident.. because although we worked beautifully together for the rest of the run, I pulled Marge right off of the #5 jump when I called her name too soon.  UGH.  Bad handler.


It's hard not to be frustrated by small and seemingly tiny mistakes like this now that we're working at such a high level and running so darn well at trials.  Of course, I am still proud of our efforts, but I know that I need to be more careful to avoid things like what I did in our Jumpers run. We'll be back out in 2 weeks for three straight days of trialing, where I hope to finally finish off that pesky MX Standard title, pick up a bunch of points and maybe a double Q.

We had a great time at the trial despite our mistakes.  Marge got to see some of her friends and made new ones, too. Look at this adorable Finnish Spitz puppy that Marge met at the trial.  He's owned by a friend of mine, who competes with one of her other Finnish Spitz.  Marge typically does not do well with puppies, but she was infatuated with this little guy and actually let him climb all over her while she was flat on her side!  Can you believe it?