The trial this weekend was held in Marietta, Georgia at the Cobb Equestrian Center. It was a very pleasant place for a trial if you don’t take the weather into consideration. Wouldn’t you know a cold front came through just for the weekend. Low’s were in the 20’s the high’s were in the 30’s – not too bad (ha ha) until you throw in the 30 mph winds. It was downright cold. Sunday was the worst and fortunately we got to meet people on Saturday as on Sunday people were so bundled up you couldn’t tell who anyone was – just big bundles of clothes. And on Sunday most people just worked out of their cars so even though there were plenty of dogs to run it seemed pretty empty.
We arrived Friday mid-day and were the first ones there. On the upper level is the huge covered arena – probably just about big enough for three rings although this trial only had one. That left lots of room for crating and vendors on all four sides of the ring although everyone seemed to set up on the ends. There were very nice bleachers on both sides (but not the full length of the arena - just in the center) although I only saw two people ever up there. I’ll tell you about them later.
There were a few spots for RV’s to park (with electric and water) probably only 20 yards from the arena. But that isn’t the main RV parking area there. About 10’ from our RV was a hill that went down to the lower level. There is a very large pond there with lots of geese and turtles.
As Wazzu and walked back and forth the length of the pond the geese kept following us. I guess they thought we might feed them. But no such luck.
While Wazzu and I were taking a little walk on Friday we came across these goose eggs.
Along the length of the pond on one side, there are 40 concrete RV spots complete with electric and water. However, to get to the arena you had to walk up a hill so we parked on the upper level to be near the arena. The pond was very pretty and a nice spot to let the dogs run and swim. We had hoped to let Slugger swim but it was just too cold. Wazzu did fall in while chasing something on Friday but fortunately the cold spell hadn’t quite hit by then.
This trial was the first one this club ever held and I must say for a “first time” this club did a pretty good job. As with most places back east, the ribbons were small flats. It was help yourself which I think is the better method – not that we take ribbons anymore but it just seems so much easier. They posted the scores on the inner arena railing which worked well as many people can look at the results at one time. They got the results up in a very timely manner.
Workers weren’t given lunch although they did bring in pizza and sub sandwiches with chips and drinks which you could purchase for $5.00. They did bring in donuts and bagels both days along with coffee and tea which was free for everyone.
They had a nice photographer there but man were her pictures expensive! She took a number of pictures I really would have like but at those prices there was just no way. There were two pictures however that I just couldn’t pass up. One was of little Slugger jumping. We have no jump pictures of him since we rarely enter him in any events that have jumps. But he was running so fast and clearing the bars by a lot and in this particular picture he had such a look of determination on his face that Mike and I both thought we needed that picture.
The second picture we couldn’t pass up was a very unusual shot. She only got two shots like this and it just so happened one of them was Sparkie. You can’t actually tell it is Sparkie as she is inside the tunnel. But it was a clear tunnel and the lighting was just right so you can see her silhouette just perfectly with Mike running along side.
The vendors here held nothing back. They brought huge trucks – like half semi size trucks full of their goods. They set it all up and it looked like real stores! And they had numerous items I’d never seen before so it was fun to look around. Wazzu however kept leading me to this one store in particular so of course I had to buy her what she wanted. She picked out some really nummy Buffalo Bites. The lady said these are also fine for people and that a lot of people buy them for themselves. But I think I’ll let the dogs have them as they are crazy for them. Wazzu also picked out a huge bone for herself and one for each of the youngsters as well. They think she is a good shopper!
Oh yes – we did do some agility while we were there too! As you might imagine, I was freezing. However, Wazzu thought this was just the perfect temperature and she loved the big wind gusts that would ruffle her hair. She was so “up” for every run. She was speedy and she was happy. However, I must say that didn’t translate to anymore Q’s for us. In fact, we were under our average. But I just couldn’t keep up! I couldn’t get to where I needed to be sometimes. To be fair however, there was a time or two when Wazzu just thought she just had better ideas. LOL. But we both had big smiles every run and just had a blast running together. I just love it when Wazzu is so happy and goofy. She has quite the sense of humor and really let it show this weekend.
I didn’t really think this was possible but Sparkie is running faster and faster all the time. And this is causing some trouble in the communication between Mike and Sparkie. When Sparkie speeds up like this, Mike has to get his commands out even earlier which is hard to do without practice. On Saturday, Sparkie thought she was Superman. You know, faster than a speeding bullet and can fly though the air. And fly she did. On her first run she was called for flying off the teeter, and missing both contacts. And none of those three things left anything to the judges imagination as she launched WAY early. The next run Sparkie once again flew off the first two contact obstacles. So when they got to the next contact obstacle, Mike ran as fast as he could to beat Sparkie to the end. He then started to bend over to catch Sparkie and make her stop in the yellow. Instead she launched herself and jumped all the way over Mike and through the next two tunnels before Mike even knew what had happened. The crowd all gasped and then laughed. Yup, she thought she was Superman.
Sunday, she seemed to remember that you were supposed to tough the yellow and never missed a contact all day. But she was running faster than ever. On the second Regular run of the day she and Mike were having a total run of beauty. At the very end of the course they had to make a turn then do the last two obstacles. The second to last obstacle was a discrimination as well as the distance challenge. Just as they made the turn a huge gust of wind came up and blew Mike’s hat off. His natural reaction was to grab for his hat. That lift of the arm gave Sparkie the clue to go out – unfortunately the correct obstacle was the “in” obstacle. So a most beautiful run was blemished right at the very end.
Little Slugger may not have had a great weekend on paper but he was great. For the first time in a long time we entered him in Chances. It is a big chance to enter him in that event as it could have the dreaded teeter included. And this was the case on Saturday. So even though the did the challenge and the rest of the course they had to run by the teeter. But it was a positive experience for him and he worked so hard. Sunday we lucked out as there was no teeter. Once again he did the distance challenge perfectly but he and Mike somehow got tangled up on the third to last obstacle. But both runs were great showings for him. He ran fast and acted very happy to get to participate.
The last run on Sunday was Tunnelers and it was a very nice flowing course. So it was fast and furious! All three dogs did great and ran just as fast as they could. Sparkie blew everyone away. If you blinked you would have missed her – although if Will had been there she definitely would have had a run for her money…..and Will most likely would have come out on top!
We also had visitors! When I realized we were going to be at a trial in the Atlanta area I contacted my cousin Joan, who I haven’t seen in probably 15 years, to see if she might be free to come visit with us while we were in town. As it turned out, she was available and lived about an hour from the trial site.
So Saturday, Joan and her friend Margaret came to visit and watch the dogs do some agility. They arrived in time to see each of the dogs run twice. They had never seen agility before and seemed to think it was quite interesting. Margaret is a long time breeder and dog trainer so she was very curious about agility. I was very impressed with her vast knowledge of dogs and really enjoyed visiting with her.
After the trial ended for the day, Mike ran out to Chili’s and bought dinner for all of us and brought it back to the RV. We ate and talked well into the evening getting caught up on many years worth of events and reminiscing about old times. (Her oldest son, Baz, was the ring bearer in our wedding almost 24 years ago!) It was a great time and I feel so blessed to have had this great opportunity to spend some time with both Joan and Margaret.
Joan enjoyed our time together so much that she called on Sunday afternoon and said she was coming by again. Once again she arrived in time so see each dog run twice and we also had plenty of free time to visit some more. Then after we were all done running and pretty tuckered out, Joan was kind enough to run out to O’Charleys and get dinner for all of us. Mike and I had never heard of this restaurant but the good she brought back from there was fantastic. I don’t know if we’ll ever come across an O’Charleys in our travels but if we do we wouldn’t hesitate to eat there!
Joan’s visit was a spur of the moment thing that we put together just the day before we arrived in Georgia. And while I was eager to get to see her I had no idea the true blessing this would turn out to be. Certainly one of the highlights of our trip for me. She tried to convince us to stay longer but we politely explained to her the numerous reasons why we really don’t like Georgia and why we are anxious to leave just as soon as possible. She may have to come farther to see us next time as we are making plans to make sure we don’t ever come to Georgia again!
I think the closest we’ll come to Georgia is maybe eating a Georgia peach some time! Mmmm, that sounds good.
Debbie
3/2-4/07
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