July champ shows

Two weeks ago we had our July champ shows. The weather was good and I had some goals I had set myself. I wanted to get our last DJ qualification, which I knew if we worked as a team we could achieve it. It was our first round in grade 2 NC so I just wanted to have a nice round and have fun. I wasnt expecting too much in our contact round as I feel we still have work to do, so we going to proof. Our first round of the day, DJ and I felt it was a nice course, not too easy but one thing I thought was maybe a little "tricky" for the lower grade. A go round straight out of a tunnel. Well we are here to be tested, so as always we were going to give it our best shot. Brandi was certainly "on" and I had a feeling that this was it. She was off to a flying start, did the go round superbly and we were having a great round. I didnt give her the best line to the jump before the weaves and she did a little circle before doing the jump and flying into the weaves. As the scribe was on the course with the judge, no one could say if it was a clear round or not. I certainly thought it was.....well not to be. BUT we enjoyed every moment of that round and I was very happy with Brandi's attitude. Next up was a contact round. I found the course relative to the grade and nothing too tricky, approach to the dogwalk could have been better. Well certainly after that I know that we have plenty of work to do still. Brandi knows the 2o2o position but in my mind lacks confidence on the contacts. Her contacts were slow but the rest of the round was good. We have open shows coming up so I will be really working the contacts, we will eliminate but I want good contacts and willing to throw some rounds. And so our NC round was approaching. Feeling a bit of nerves with it been our first round in grade 2, walking the course it seemed do-able. I thought Brandi and I could do this. It was a tricky start but was a nice running course and if that is one thing Brandi can do, is run!! We had a superb round, she did everything expected of her and she was quick. We got a clear round, so our first qualification in grade 2. Oh boy was I chuffed. We had 1 more round to do, DJ. Walking the course there was a tricky section where there was not a big gap between 2 jumps that you had to go through to enter the weaves. It was queried and the jump was moved out about a meter. This meant the approach to the tunnel coming back wasa little harder. Again a nice running course, I thought well if we want a qualification now was our chance. We did it! Again a lovely round to end of the day. I was extremely happy with Brandi that day, she worked well and I couldnt have asked for better. I think I was in a very good frame of mind that day, it clearly paid off. Next up is a open show weekend before we hit the road to Bloemfontein.