Howie gets a new title

Howie was a very good little poodle this weeeknd and finished his AXP with a first place. H got his first Exc JWW Q with another first place.

The AXP came fairly easily with five tries, but the JWW is another story. Today was try # 10 and our first Q. And always ONE little thing typically caused by my poor handling.

Starting out 2009 with a bang !

Norah and Howie spent the first weekend of the year at an agility trial in a freezing cold horse arena. The poodles love the snow a lot more than I do. On Saturday Howie got his second Q in Excellent Standard. He had a beautiful run in JWW just missing a Q. In Standard, Norah misjudged a jump, taking down a bar for the first time ever, marring an otherwise very pretty run. We redeemed our selves with her second Q in Excllent JWW that afternoon.

Sunday was just as cold and miserable and the courses seemed much more challenging. Norah Q'd in Excellent earning her AX! YEAH!!! The run was a bit rough and sure showed us the holes in our training, but it was a Q. Howie had a beautiful run but had a refusal at the teeter so no Q.

After waiting for hours for our JWW Norah turned in an awkward and ugly run that managed to get her a Q and her title AXJ! She earned her three Q's in three straight tries but the last one sure was not pretty! Howie ran a short time later with a much nicer run, smooth and flowing but a mistimed rear cross on my part pushed him around one jump so no Q.

So a very cold weekend with two new titles; a nice way to start out the new year.