Bad calls

I got two bad calls by the judge at the trial today.  The bad call Lyric got was one of those "gifts" where you should have gotten a fault but didn't.  We were having a good run but just had one communication error and she pretty much came to a complete stop almost on top of a jump before we got going again.  I have no idea why we didn't get called for a refusal but we didn't. Some may make the argument that she hadn't seen the obstacle yet but she was in the last third of the approach so I'm not sure what the rule is on that.  So as far as I'm concerned, we got a "free" Q.  There are a lot of people, including me, who feel kind of guilty about taking those but the logic is that someday you will get a "bad" bad call to make up for it.

Fast forward to Legend's standard run.  We had a QQ and the last of our points to qualify for nationals on the line.  I thought we were clean but a friend informed me we got called on our dogwalk contact.  I know she was in the yellow-she was practically walking down the ramp and I was watching everything closely as I knew what we had on the line.  Stupid karma.  Let me tell you that "free Q guilt" fades really fast when your "rapidly approaching a MACH dog" gets cheated out of QQ!  I didn't ask the judge about it.  It's not on tape and it all comes out even in the end (or in this case by the end of the day).   And the judge may be just as sure that she was not in the contact. 

It is essentially inevitable that Legend will get her two nationals points and her 4 QQs but still...ok, end of ranting.  Tomorrow is another day.  The bottom line is that she ran great today.  We had a smooth as silk jumpers run on a course with very few Qs-quite proud of that.  Hopefully tomorrow she will run just as well and the a-frame and teeter boogiemen will stay far away this weekend. 

Lyric, while still struggling to be consistent in standard is getting into the groove of 24 inch weave poles.  She actually seems to be more comfortable in them that the 20 inch (or 22 or whatever) we have at home.  And I did a few nice rear crosses with her today so definitely some good parts.