Toller Champion!

Spoiler alert- Vito earned his ATCH this weekend at the USDAA trial!  He needed 1 jumpers Q and 1 Super Q in snooker.  Honestly it was a feat I wasn't sure would ever happen for him. Jumpers is his least favorite class and he's prone to going slow and knocking bars, but it's also very doable for him.  But in snooker Vito has gotten the points needed so many times and just not the speed needed to beat the other great teams for those special super qs!

I took the tollers to their first trial in 4 months.  So excited to compete as well as just getting out of the house,  It was also our first time at the new jump heights.  Zumi was already assured to jump 20in and Vito I wanted to remeasure as I was certain that he was easily under 19in tall in order to make that 20in cutoff as well.  He made the measurement easily!  I'm extra excited as I wasn't sure how much longer I wanted him jumping 22" but 20" is so much easier for him.  It's amazing what just 2in can do,

Vito had 3 runs on Saturday.  Jumpers was first and he needed 1 more towards his ATCH title. Well Vito was pretty happy and put out a solid run.  Not warp speed but not a Sad Toller run either.


Standard was the same although Vito missed his dogwalk contact on a very easy straight exit.  It's been a long time since that's happened!  And then finally snooker.  Since he was in the new 20in class now there were less dogs and an easier chance of getting that SQ.  We pulled out a 50pt run and waited.  I was a bit dismayed to see 1 team who also did 50pts slow down and not go for speed at the end.  She mistakenly entered championship when they're now in performance and didn't want to take a placement away, but I didn't want to win that way.  She didn't know I was going for my ATCH.  Oh well.  So Vito won his height.  I did feel better to see that (sadly) all the top teams made errors at 22in and Vito's score would actually have gotten first in that height as well.


Vito's first championship.  My first championship.
Vito must be content with his new accomplishment as his 2 runs the next day were more flat.  Still manged to pull off a difficult gamble but not really excited about the day.