Westminster Tonight

Tonight Tessa and I are going to Westminster for the March CPE trial.  This marks the one year anniversary of Tessa's first CPE trial.

What a difference a year makes!  A year ago I still had no confidence whatsoever in Tessa's Agility skills.  I didn't know how she was going to be in the big sports arena at Westminster.  It was my first CPE trial since losing Maddie and I was missing her so badly.  It was just a tough night all around.  Tessa had fun that night and we had a very good first CPE experience, but I walked away from that trial disheartened, even though I was proud of Tessa for doing her best.

Now we are an experienced team - at least a little!  We have all of Level 1 under our belts, and almost half of Level 2!  We've Q'ed, NQ'ed, and run and run and grown as a team.  

Tonight I mean to take some risks.  We are running Snooker and Fullhouse.  Now that we are in Level 3 Fullhouse, we are going to have to work a little harder for the points.  We either need to pick up our speed, or I am going to have to strategize to get in more of the higher scoring pieces of equipment.  And Snooker with Tessa is always a challenge.  We only have one Snooker Q out of four tries, and that was Level 1.  But I have more confidence in Tessa's ability in Snooker now.  I think I can plan our run better.  I think that in both games, I am going to have to plan to take some chances.  Chances that could pay off with big success, or that could backfire entirely!  But I feel like I'm at a point where I'm willing to do that.  Where I think it will be fun to do that.  I want to see what Tessa can do if I push the envelope a little.  We do this in class and 8 times out of 10, she is successful.

Regardless of the results tonight, I know I will enjoy the night with my girl.  This will be her third trial at Westminster.  We had a ton of success there in August.

Last year I had to make myself look forward to this trial.  This year, I don't even have to try!!