Braddock Winchester Trial Oct 21-22, 2017 part 2
Day 2 of the trial and Braddock did not disappoint. He got another double Q with 2 first places. Those are easy stats to put out there, and yet, they aren't what I think about. What I do think about is the way we ran the course, improving our lines, trying new things, and being even more connected.
JWW was first. There were 3 key parts to really work on this course. 1) jump #6. Most people serped it, staying on the landing side. This did, however, put a lot of pressure on the bar. If you decided to front the exit of the tunnel and pull the dog to 7, then you were behind for the push out at 8. I felt the serp wasn't fair to B. He would accelerate to me, jumping center of the bar as that was the line, and then I would be asking for a sharp left turn from him. So instead, I chose collection over the bar, opting for a front cross. I did a blind at the tunnel exit, and then a front cross very close to #6, setting a tight line to 7, and then just moved laterally for the push at #8. This brings us to the second tricky spot, 2) the line from 8-11. The little dogs were able to have a blind between 9 and 10, but big dogs were too quick. The rear cross before 11 was the best line, but placement was key. When sending over 8, you had to be in line with the right wing of 10. Then just run the line and converge naturally on the approach to 11. If the handler ran jagged then it wasn't smooth. If the handler got too close to 8 and fell behind, the dogs curled right landing 10 and went into tunnel #5. And the early rear cross at 10 caused dogs to miss 11. The last tricky spot 3) jump #15. The 3 jump serp set up for dogs to slice 15 taking them toward off course jump. A late call caused dogs to go around 16, which was wingless. Most handlers opted for the double front at 13 and 15, but if had to baby the weaves (given they were going to a wall), the front at 13 was late. And therefore, most dogs were horribly wide at 15. I sent to 13, did a partial front landing side of 14, moving into a reverse spin on 15 to get Braddock to collect and change his line at takeoff. This shows up nicely on the video.
JWW was first. There were 3 key parts to really work on this course. 1) jump #6. Most people serped it, staying on the landing side. This did, however, put a lot of pressure on the bar. If you decided to front the exit of the tunnel and pull the dog to 7, then you were behind for the push out at 8. I felt the serp wasn't fair to B. He would accelerate to me, jumping center of the bar as that was the line, and then I would be asking for a sharp left turn from him. So instead, I chose collection over the bar, opting for a front cross. I did a blind at the tunnel exit, and then a front cross very close to #6, setting a tight line to 7, and then just moved laterally for the push at #8. This brings us to the second tricky spot, 2) the line from 8-11. The little dogs were able to have a blind between 9 and 10, but big dogs were too quick. The rear cross before 11 was the best line, but placement was key. When sending over 8, you had to be in line with the right wing of 10. Then just run the line and converge naturally on the approach to 11. If the handler ran jagged then it wasn't smooth. If the handler got too close to 8 and fell behind, the dogs curled right landing 10 and went into tunnel #5. And the early rear cross at 10 caused dogs to miss 11. The last tricky spot 3) jump #15. The 3 jump serp set up for dogs to slice 15 taking them toward off course jump. A late call caused dogs to go around 16, which was wingless. Most handlers opted for the double front at 13 and 15, but if had to baby the weaves (given they were going to a wall), the front at 13 was late. And therefore, most dogs were horribly wide at 15. I sent to 13, did a partial front landing side of 14, moving into a reverse spin on 15 to get Braddock to collect and change his line at takeoff. This shows up nicely on the video.
In STD, the part to watch out for was between 5-9. To get the aframe/tunnel discrimination the line was really important. If dogs took 7 wide, then they would take 8 center of the bar and be lined up for tunnel. As handler would run towards aframe, dogs would read this as acceleration to tunnel. Conversely, if handlers did a front cross close to 8 and then peeled off, dogs would actually miss the aframe and take the left end of the tunnel. The best scenario was to get the dog to slice 7 as tight as possible. I put my hand over the bar at 7 to get B to collect, when I saw him collect at takeoff I moved to 8 but kept my eyes on him and held up my opposite arm to turn in. I ran towards the frame and the line was very clear to B and only when I saw commitment did I peel off running the line towards the down contact corner of the frame. Finally, the best ending was to either blind cross before the teeter and front cross after in order to show acceleration as dogs exited the tunnel, or to rear cross the teeter (but you had to really have a go on from the tunnel so dogs didn't curl back in to aframe).
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