Vito USDAA

0 for 7 at the USDAA trial this weekend.  Saturday felt like Sad Toller came to play.

Saturday- looking around a lot before his runs.
Gamblers- ran ok but weave poles definitely made him sad.  On the gamble itself he went all the way out the jump only to stop inches in front of it.

Standard- broke his start line :)  It put me out of position for a push so he ran by a jump and I kept going.  Really flying after that and even did a 1 hit aframe!  Weave poles were much better although he also had a ton of speed from his running dogwalk shortly before.  Push to backside of jump after them and he came into too much focus on me and pulled off the next jump.

Steeplechase- My first time in this class!  Vito knocked the 2nd bar and did a death march on teh first set of weaves.  He then pulled off the jump after them so I stopped and pushed him around a bit before starting.  This of course put me out of position for doing a front cross after a straight line of jumps so I sprinted with him and planned to just do a rear on the flat which I thought he would prefer to me slowing down for a proper rear cross- maybe not, he dropped the bar on the double.  But he certainly loved me sprinting to do a blind after the broad jump!  The 2nd set of weaves right after that move was much faster!  But then more bar knocking.

Sunday- happier, but aframe issues.  Also more reactive to people at both our canopy and just walking around.

Snooker- I thought he would love this course as the aframe/tunnel combo was the #7 and the layout required lots of sprinting.  I was certainly out of breath at the end!  It started awesome, but then after the 2nd aframe he came to me instead of wrapping to the tunnel and acted like he couldn't see the tunnel in front of him.   This wasted at least 5 seconds and we then ran out of time in the closing.  Wasn't quite done tipping the teeter on the #5 combo in the closing when the buzzer blew.

Standard- Happy run!  But took the tunnel instead of the aframe.  I thought he would prefer me sending him to the jump and sprinting away instead of doing a front cross before it.  The rest of the run was happy and although he did run by the last jump I'll take the blame as he actually went out around it vs coming in to focus on me.

Pairs- Happy run but avoidance of aframe again. Also knocked the 2nd bar and pulled off another jump.

Gamblers- More avoidance of aframe, twice.  Did do his "stopped" dogwalk contact ok.  We would have just barely had enough points to qualify if he made the gamble.  Vito actually went out to the weave poles and slowly did them at a distance.  Then he even sent out past the dummy jump next to me and got within an inch of the correct jump when he turned right in front of it.  I did tell him to switch but I was certainly hoping it would be after taking the jump.

Only after that last gamblers run did I start to think it was a physical problem.  Sorry Vito.
I took him for a massage after that run and she stated that his back was pretty darn tight, especially on his right side.  Recommending additional work done soon.  I'm currently debating about him seeing Lance's chiropractor instead or the 2nd massage.