USDAA This Weekend (and Nationals)

SUMMARY: Ready to send Nationals entry. Not ready for prime time with Boost.

I've got Tika's entry form all filled out for the USDAA Nationals ("Cynosport World Games") for November. Haven't sent it in while I wait to hear from my teammates about crating options. I have no one to drive down with or hotel with, so I guess I'll be driving on my own, taking it easy rather than blasting through and blasting back, and probably sleeping in my van onsite. Which will save a bunch of money and travel time but isn't as comfy as the hotel, and I guess I wont' have a network connection for trying to send updates to The Bay Team as the days go on. Sigh. I wonder whether there's a starbucks or something nearby Westworld with a wireless connection?

Boost in class today--couldn't do serpentines if our lives depended on them. Couldn't even get her out of a tunnel over a perpendicular jump, crap. One of our classmates hit it on the head when she said that Boost doesn't know how to collect herself. This is our major problem in sequences; once she opens up the throttle, she doesn't know how to prepare for a turn or change of direction or pace. It's not as if we haven't practiced turns, a lot, all the time, at home. What we don't have space for is practicing opening up the throttle.

And her weaves suck. She just skips poles randomly and constantly. How did I get there from having a dog who was so good at them that I was practicing runbys, distance work, front crosses, rear crosses, and distraction work? It seems to have all gone completely goodbye. Have started using some aids at home again. But in class, she did the first set of weaves perfectly and then nada. Argh. It never ends.

SOOO this weekend Tika just needs a Super-Q in Snooker for her Snooker Master, Snooker Championship, and ADCH. And that's it, those are the last titles she could earn for a while, after a long rash of cleaning up title after title.

And Boost is entered in all the Starters classes. Nancy suggested backing off and just entering her in fun matches and such for practice in different environments. (A) There are no fun matches. (B) I'm there at the USDAA trials anyway with Tika so I might as well enter Boost. Yeah, the runs are more expensive than at fun matches. I could also do like I did Saturday and rent field(s) for the practice. Which I can do on weekends when I'm home, maybe, but I'll be off doing USDAA trials 3 of the next 5 (?) weekends. So not a lot of chances there.

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