UP you go, Saturn!

Landsdown is a lovely place, not only the people there are friendly but the sceneray is always beautiful and relaxing. I went there last year for the first time and I enjoyed it so much, I just love the walk on top of the hill and down the whole race course and I determind to go again this year.

We didn't leave home till 6pm on Friday evening and luckily a friend save me a camping spot. At that time, M25 and M4 were dreadful and when we got to M4, it started to rain and it got darker and foggy, that made the journey worst than I thought. We managed to get there at last.

Saturday was a good day for the boys, both Agility and Jumping courses were not straight forward, it involved some handling, which was very good for me and the boys. In both classes, Saturn has to run first according to the running order. The first run was Agility, luckily I have Colin with me, so off he went with Sing to queue for us and I could play and do a bit of training with Saturn while we were waiting. I kept reminding myself "MOTION" before going in and Saturn was in his happy jolly self. He was barking mad on the startline, I was worried how I would handle jump, jump, see-saw as his see-saw could be a bit dodgy. I am hoping he has a good speed up the see-saw so he would not miss the target point and thank God he did it alright and as we were turning right to the A Frame, I have to remember to keep myself moving all the time when he is up on the A Frame and I am pleased with myself I did not forget and he didn't hesitate eventhough he didn't come down in a great speed and released himself too quick on the target. There were a lot of dogs got eliminated on the jump #9 to jump #10 and I think Saturn worked beautifully on that part and his weave was good. I was very happy we went clear eventhough I would like to have a better A Frame with him but due to him freezing on top of the A Frame again, so to keep him moving and not hesitating is the most important thing for time being. The judge Hilary Bowden was praising him, so it must be a good run then.

The Jumping class started nearly the same time as the Agility, so I haven't have time to go and check his time, I was hoping around the agility and jumping rings as I have Sing due to run too. Saturn didn't run too well in the Jumping ring, the ground in the Jumping ring was very uneven and it was a big course, we have to run down the hill, up the hill, down the hill again, up the hill again and take a big loop then down and up again ... I have realised Saturn didn't weave in his usual speed if the start is jump weave. Unfortunately the course was jump, jump, weave ... so we started the two jumps on the hill and into the weave, he was alright but caught himself a couple of times on weaving up the hill, I don't know how and why (it didn't quite show up on the video) but he caught in the 3/4 and 7/8, when we finished, I asked some friends who were watching us and they said it is very likely the uneven ground that caused the problem. I also saw him lost his balance before going into the 2nd tunnel. I went to check his time after we ran, he was leading by 2 seconds ahead. I started to have a mixed feeling. He already have two jumping wins and if he were to win this jumping, it will take him out of Grade 3. I would love to go up the Grade with him but I want an Agility win. I do not want a dog that cannot do agility to be in the higher grade. I was very emotional and didn't give Sing any attention (how bad is that!), so I went over to check his agiltiy time, to my surprised, he was leading by 3 seconds at that time. There were a few good speedy dogs in the queue and I never thought we will win it, so now I am hoping someone could beat us in the Jumping. After Sing, there was a Terrier that ran last, I thought he was in Grade 4 but it turn out to be a Grade 3 dog. I kept praying he will run faster and not make mistake, so when he hit the finishing line, I quickly peer to look at the time, HA! He was 1/100th of a seconds faster than Saturn. I was so happy (am I crazy?)! At the same time, they closed the agility ring, so I went over to look who is winning and I can't believe I saw Saturn's name was on top of the Grade 3! Now, I was so regret that the Terrier beaten us!!! I would love a double win!!!

Anyway, I have achieved some good things with Saturn this weekend. I have realised his weaving speed is very steady and if I keep moving when he was on the A Frame, he will not hesitate. What I have to do now is to do more training to get his perfect targetting. With Sing, we still have problem back jumping, either I turned him into me or turned him away from me, I need to practise that bit but this weekend, he achieved another 100% running dog walk and he started to weave independently.

We finished fairly early on Saturday, so we took the dogs for a long walk down the race course and have a drink in the pub to celebrate Saturn's win. Didn't I swear I will never drink when I have to run the next day? Well, forget about this, I have a big bottle of Perry and it did give me a terrible headache the next day!

Now, I better put my training shoe on, both boys need some serious training!!