Europe Trip 2007 - Team Jumping

Sunday was the Team competition.  A team was comprised of four dogs.  Small and medium could be combined and large ran separately.  Hemi's team was Jib the Poodle (medium), Wave the Sheltie (small) and Neil the Sheltie (small).  The best three scores per team in each class (Standard and Jumping) were combined.  The team with the best six scores overall was the winner. This was Hemi's first run of the day on Sunday.  The running order had changed and now we were in the first group.  I thought this course looked the most "American" of all the ones we had done so far.  It was pretty straightforward.  It was the first time we had seen a bounce jump (combination #10) but I wasn't worried about it, Hemi is a great jumper.  I admit I was disappointed to see that the chute was taken twice on this course, because I remembered that Hemi had been "stuck" in the exit the day before.  And both times through the chute, there was a pretty hard turn at the exit so she would be trying to pull the fabric sideways and wouldn't be able to.  Not much I could do about it though…

We started the course and I didn't lead out very much because it wasn't necessary.  Some people chose to front cross between 6 & 7 but I opted to rear cross 7.  I knew it would give Hemi a better turn to 8 and it worked nicely.  As I expected, she got hung up in the chute both passes, costing us time on the clock.  Still, we finished with a clean run and it felt great!! Out of 77 teams, Team USA 7 (pictured at right) finished Team Jumping in FIRST PLACE!!

You might notice that Hemi isn't in the photo.  It was taken at opening ceremonies on Friday.  I had been told it was optional to bring your dog.  It was SO HOT that I was sure everyone would leave their dog to rest at the hotel.  So I did, and everyone else brought their dogs!  Oh well!! Watch it here!

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