After three competitions for Rain it all came to a grinding halt thanks to COVID-19. Who would have thought. While it was a bit depressing after waiting so long to be able to trial again, the enforced rest was probably a bit of a blessing. Rain hyper-flexed her carpus at some point. Possibly caused by A-Frame training, despite me waiting until she was 17 months old to train it and being super careful 😒. I wasn't 100% sure exactly when it happened or that it was even resolved despite no obvious lameness after physio treatment. So with everything cancelled I decided to get her spayed and give her rest a nice long rest. If everything hadn't been cancelled I'm not sure her wrist would have held up to States and Nationals.
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| Serious Rain |
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| Comedian Rain |
I had always planned to get Rain spayed after the Nationals but once it was cancelled it was the perfect time to get it out the way. It didn't quite go as I'd hoped. During surgery they had trouble with Rain's blood not clotting and she bruised up really badly from the clamps. The surgeon had to take much longer with the surgery just to be extra careful. So Rain came home very sad and sorry for herself. Then she had a reaction to the fyximol tape when I took it off and came out in a massive rash. She couldn't be exercised at all until after the stitches came out as she was so sore and I had to leave an Elizabethan collar on her well after the stitches came out because her skin reacted so badly and she was itchy all the time. I was constantly having to put ice on the rash to help give her some relief. Fortunately through the whole thing she was happy to rest and have quiet time. I was so relieved once she had healed and it was finally behind us.
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| Hiking with friends |
Rain had a full eight week break from all things agility and decided it was time to do some other things. Thanks to the pandemic we have been doing lots of swimming, hiking, had a first go at sheep herding and have been playing with some obedience. It's been a lot of fun and while I do miss agility her love of everything we try makes everything fun. No matter what I do with Rain she throws herself into it with 110% enthusiasm. The most surprising thing has probably been the heel work. She just loves it and the power she puts into it feels amazing. I feel like she deserves for me to invest time in obedience training so I can compete with her. I've had a lesson with Sue Hogben one of our top local obedience trainers because I don't have the experience to fix issues. Lets face it, I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to obedience. And we will be back for more lessons as soon as I have some time. I can't see us in the ring anytime soon but I have no doubt that it will happen.
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| The WA Kerodan girlies
I have restarted Rain's agility training. She is wearing a carpus brace for now to protect her wrist as I just don't want to take any risks. She is jumping but I'm keeping the jumps low. We've also restarted her running dog walk, stripped back to basics. Our agility trialling doesn't restart until September so I have a few months up my sleeve to make it better. The mat is back, the dog walk is low and she is looking really good with her hits. I plan to leave the dreaded A-Frame and weavers until last. Those pieces of equipment are going to put the most pressure on her wrist joint and I really don't want to do anything that will risk doing any damage.
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I took Rain sheep herding for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I walked into the pen with the sheep knowing it would go one of two ways. She'd either completely ignore them or enjoy it. Fortunately it was the latter and she thought it was the best fun ever. She kept trying to drag me back into the sheep yard to do some more. I'm not so worried about herding titles but I want to give her the opportunity to do different things that she finds fun so we'll definitely be out there again and do some more.
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| Princess pappy |
It looks like our first agility trials will be in September. I'm disappointed that I miss out on two judging appointments over east, one in Hawkesbury and one in Melbourne. But everyone is optimistic that they will go ahead next year instead. With all the extra downtime with no agility commitments I decided to sign up for the OfCourse Online Course Design course. With Petr Pupik, Tamas Traj and Jan Eigl Eide as the teachers it is too good of an opportunity to pass up. So I'm looking forward to coming up with more exiting course designs once everything kicks up again, including judging the Masters Jumping final at this years State Trial.
