Tag Archive for: Cute

EO Qualifications, second and last round

 

Late it comes, my article about the second and last EO qualification. But better than never 🙂 And no, it doesn’t have to do anything with my results 🙂

Actually, it’s a weekend to forget. Yet still, I’ve learned so much. Not just this last weekend, but also the first EO qualification day. So much I learned that is worth to keep. To sum up the weekend: Saturday top, Sunday flop.

With the pre-quali competition from Saturday I was very pleased with mine and Cute’s performance. The jumping run we won. In the agility run the second bar fell down, but I was satisfied with all her contacts and in the open agility run I was again focused on the contacts.

I knew that we had to get a fast clear first run on Sunday to stay in the competition for a chance in the team. I felt comfortable in my pre-start-state and I was able to retrieve ideal performance state. Unfortunately, Cute squealed on the closed (!) slalom entry. To high her speed was as to get the right sense of tact in time. Too bad, but now it was real… no EO for us this year.

At least I could entertain the audience in the second run. An obstacle number was placed right in front of the tunnel entry, which had to be taken away before Cute harmed herself. But have a look at your own in the video at the end.

At this point I’d like to congratulate to all the teams who made it into this years team. I wish you all the best and to success in Rieden.

 

 

EO Qualifications, the first round

 

It looks Cute is now tiered after two days of competition. We had a very successful and satisfying warm-up competition on Saturday. Cute won the jumping run. In the agility and open-agility I put her back on the first contact whereupon she understood that she had to wait.

With this good thoughts in mind I went very confident into the next day – the qualifications day. Two runs had to be done. She really tried her hardest. Unfortunately I have to say in both we went dis. Both time it was my bloody fault!

Conclusion: good waiting sequences on the start, good 2020-contacts, good runs by cute, bloody handling mistakes by myself. Annoying!

 

Video – Saturday 07.03.2015

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Video – Sunday 08.03.2015, Qualification round #1 for the European Open

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Happy Birthday Cute

 

Happy 5th Birthday my sweet little Cute!

You’re living now since April 2010 with me. Day by day you enrich my life with your company. For me she’s the perfect border collie. Playful paired with a puppy like behavior in private life. On the training field and on competition focused and energized on the sport. With her lovely and ‘cute’ behavior she does not only twist me around her little finger 🙂

For todays birthday celebration she deserved a delicious extraordinary b’day meal. Enjoy 🙂

I’m so proud to have her with me. Although, not everything went as expected regarding to agility. But the most important is we’ve been there for each other. We still have a long and tough way in front of us in agility. But we improved a lot over the last half year and I’m sure to reach our goals. Together we can do it!

The video below shows the deput of Cute in agility.

 

4th & last part of the Int. Lux Winter-Cup

 

ENGLISH (Deutsche Version weiter unten)

The 4th and last part of the Int. Lux Winter-Cup is over and with it the new winners have been chosen.

This time I drove to Luxemburg with a bad preparation packed. Right before the final stage of the cup, I had to deal with a strong flu. Still marked on illness I went to Beetembourg. It’s no surprise that sleeping beside the ring was one of my favorite activities 🙂

It wasn’t easy to be concentrated on the course and getting into the ideal performance level. But I tried to do my best. Both of my dogs did such a great job over the weekend. Overall I’m quite ok with our performance of the weekend. Cute showed again how fast she can be by doing best time. If there won’t be those ridiculous wall pieces 🙂

Amid the applause of the audience, Ayla did her last run on Sunday evening. And we finished our carrier as we started it, with a clean-run 🙂 Well done my love!

Cute and I finished the Cup with the 9th place. I would like to congratulate to the winners of the 2014/15 edition of the Int. Lux Winter-Cup.

LargeMaunaert Olivier with Keen
MediumRaczka Thomas with Curly
SmallOé Mireille with Less

Hopefully next edition would be even more ‘international’. I can definitely recommend this competition.

At this point I want to say thank you to the HSV Beetebuerg for doing the Winter-Cup. It’s such a cool competition with so many lovely people. Can’t wait for the next edition. But for now, I’m looking forward to Agility by Night, the next big event in Beetembourg 🙂

(Video after the german part)

DEUTSCH

Die 4. und letzte Etappe des Int. Lux Winter-Cup ist vorbei und mit ihr stehen die Gewinner fest.

Dieses Mal fuhr ich nach Luxemburg mit einer ziemlich schlechten Vorbereitung im Gepäck. Kurz vor der letzten Etappe des Cups musste ich mich mit einer starken Grippe herum plagen. Immer noch gezeichnet davon ging ich nach Beetembourg.

Es war nicht leicht sich auf die Läufe zu konzentrieren und in den idealen Leistungszustand zu wechseln. Aber ich tat mein Bestes. Meine beiden Hunde haben einen super Job übers Weekend abgeliefert. Insgesamt bin ich ganz zufrieden mit unseren Leistungen. Cute hat einmal mehr bewiesen wie schnell sie sein kann indem sie Bestzeiten lief. Wären da nur nicht diese lächerlichen Mauerteilchen 🙂

Unter dem Applaus des Publikums lief Ayla ihren letzten Lauf am Sonntag Abend. Und wir haben unsere Karriere gleich beendet wie wir sie begonnen haben, mit einem Clean-Run 🙂 Danke viel mal meine Liebste!

Cute und ich beendeten den Cup auf dem 9. Schlussrang. Ich möchte allen Gewinnern der Ausgabe 2014/15 des Int. Winter-Cups herzlich gratulieren.

LargeMaunaert Olivier with Keen
MediumRaczka Thomas with Curly
SmallOé Mireille with Less

Ich hoffe die nächste Ausgabe wird noch ‘internationaler’. Dieses Turnier kann ich nur wärmstens empfehlen.

An dieser Stelle möchte ich mich beim HSV Beetebuerg  für den diesjährigen Winter-Cup bedanken. Es ist einfach ein tolles Turnier mit super netten Leuten. Ich kann kaum auf die nächste Ausgabe warten. Jetzt aber freu ich mich erstmal auf Agility by Night, das nächste grosse Ereignis in Beetembourg 🙂

 

Video

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Some fun with GoPro and dogs

See what happens when mounting a GoPro on a dogs back. I’ve done this last weekend. Ayla had the role as cameradog. She did her job really got for her first time. Who knows… maybe Hollywood is calling soon 😀

Was geschieht wenn du einem Hund eine GoPro auf den Rücken bindest? Letztes Wochenende bin ich genau dieser Frage nach. Ayla wurde zum Kamerahund. Für’s erste Mal hat sie es ganz passabel gemacht. Wer weiss… vielleicht ruft bald schon Hollywood an 😀

 

Int. Luxembourg Winter-Cup – Part 3

ENGLISH (Deutsche Version weiter unten)

I look back on an interesting and successful part 3 of the Int. Luxembourg Winter-Cup. The judges of this past weekend have been Stefanie Semkat and Gabriella Witte, both from Germany. They attended with some tricky cool and fast courses. Especially the Jumping A3 from Sunday was putted with tight sequences but without affecting the overall speed of the course. It was real fun to run all of their courses.

Cute was in good shape. Both runs counting for the Winter-Cup she did clear and fast. On Saturday she stocked in the last tunnel (second last obstacle) thereby she lost some time there, so she got 4. Unfortunately, since Agility runs abroad don’t count for Swiss handlers I decided to use it for training purposes. Some newly learned turns, contacts and so on…

I had to take away my everything-eater Ayla from Saturday’s competition because she found some delicious old cocking oil from which she got a massive upset stomach. And I, a sleepless night with cleaning my caravan 🙂 After some friendly fresh cooked rise she felt way better on the next day. Thx Jess for cooking it. So I was able without any risk to get her back on competition.

Cute took a big jump from nowhere to place 9 in the intermediate ranking.

Regarding to organization, equipment, company and catering I don’t have to say a thing. It’s gorgeous as every time. Keep it up, HSV Beetebuerg!

(Video after the german version)

DEUTSCH

Ich darf auf einen interessanten 3 Teil des Int. Luxembourg Witner-Cup zurückblicken. Die Richter vom vergangenen Wochenende waren Stefanie Semkat und Gabriella Witte, beide von Deutschland. Sie warteten mit einigen kniffligen coolen und schnellen Parcours auf. Speziell der Jumping A3 vom Sonntag war mit eng gestellten Sequenzen versehen, die jedoch die hohe Geschwindigkeit des Parcours nicht im geringsten beeinträchtigten. Jeder dieser Parcours hat echt Spass gemacht.

Cute war in guter Form. Beide für den Winter-Cup zählende Runs hat sie fehlerfrei absolviert. Am Samstag ist sie im letzten Tunnel (zweitletztes Hindernis) stecken geblieben und hat dadurch einige Zeit verloren, wurde aber noch 4. Da leider Agility Runs im Ausland für uns Schweizer nicht zählen, nutze ich diese zu Trainingszwecken. Einige neu erlernte Turns, Kontaktzonen, etc…

Mein alles-fresser Ayla musste ich am Samstag vom Turnier nehmen, da sie einen Kübel leckeres altes Speiseöl fand wovon sie starke Bauchschmerzen davon trug. Und ich, eine schlaflos, WOWA-putzende Nacht 🙂 Nachdem sie liebevoll frisch gekochten Reis erhielt, ging es ihr am nächsten Tag viel besser. Danke Jess für’s Kochen. So war ich in der Lage sie ohne Risiko wieder am Turnier teilnehmen zu lassen.

Cute machte einen grossen Sprung von nirgendwo auf Platz 9 im Zwischenklassement.

Bezüglich Organisation, Equipment, Gesellschaft und Catering muss ich nicht viel sagen. Es war grossartig wie immer. Weiter so, HSV Beetebuerg!

 

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This was my 2014

 

Wow, some hours left of 2014 and I’m very proud I’d have bybass Facebook doing my year review. Instead, I’ll doing it by myself, sry Facebook 🙂

This past year was covered – like every other year – amazing ups and sore downs with the weight this time on the downside. After a very successful 2013 – from a sportive and private perspective – I was aware it would be tough to tie on where we stopped.

Thereby, 2014 started really good for me and my dogs. Cute forge ahead at the qualifications for EO in Hungary. And I was very pleased, that also Ayla made the qualifications. So I was able to run with both of my dogs for the first time (knowing it would be the last time) on such an important international competition. 

With those good vibrations packed, I’ll was in good cheer for the AWC qualifications. As it turned out I couldn’t live up to Ayla’s success of the past AWC. I wasn’t able to run any clear run out of the 10 qualification runs. Cute and I have lost our team play and with every fault-run the vicious cycle set in – and there were several external non-agility related factors influenced on me too.

There I was… I reached the deepest rock bottom ever in my agility career so far. Therefore, I’ve reached a point when I needed to make a decision on how it goes on for the rest of the season and how do I want to prepare for the next. Kept in my mind that some important competitions are still ahead of us. And I found help on a coaching bases which extends my other trainings. It was obvious to me that this transition would take time and wouldn’t take effect during the actual season. Nevertheless, I regain new motivation and put me on the theme of

work hard, play hard

At the training camp I received the next setback. On the second day of training, Ayla sustained a muscle strain on her hindleg. Of course this happened just days before EO started. What a pain! Immediately I started with medical check-up and physiotherapy. With an unpleasant feeling in the stomach I went to Hungary – Kapsovár. Unprepared and very nervous I tried to do some jumps at the training at EO. It took a load of my mind when I realized Ayla could to her job way better than expected. Regardless, I took her out from the individual runs to get her as most time to recover as possible in between the runs. And yes, it showed its impact 🙂 She placed 1st in team qualification! Ayla did such a good job doing all runs clean, including the final! I was very pleased. (see the full report of the EO)

The rest of the summer was Cute’s time. This wasn’t bad at all. Therefore I had the chance to set the focus on me and Cute to find back together as a team and let Ayla rest to rehabilitate. 

Between EO and Border Collie Classics (BCC) we stopped for some small holidays in Croatia. Dogs enjoyed the ocean and we enjoyed the good food and drinks 🙂

BCC was packed with full of artistic courses, a pool party and the celebration of our Swiss national day. After a speedy run, Cute admitted to the final, where we missed accidentally the slalom entry… (see the post “Border Collie Classic” for more)

Our summer trip ended with the journey to the legendary KC International Agility Festival in England. I was blown away about the dimension of this tournament. With no expectations in mind I got surprised about the performance Cute showed off. She won twice a combined grade 6/7 class run, won a qualification run with the team on the team nations cup and showed some other very cool runs with some minor failures which I don’t care about 🙂 Read the full blog “The outstanding KC International Agility Festival” for more details on that event.

After spending something like a month on competitions without training I came back home for the Swiss Championship. We’ve been there and that’s it. Nothing to add. It looked like I couldn’t compete in my own country anymore… An icy mood lingered and I reset my focus on several trainings instead of competing – training Agility, my physical condition and my mental strength.
And I started again to train with Ayla since she was back on track. Her training didn’t last long. It was mid autumn as she had to undergo a surgery to get out her blocked oil glands. This meant Ayla got sidelined for another few weeks. With her almost 9.5 years I decided to completely take her out of the sport by the end of this year. Read more about her last training and her surgery at “Emotionale Woche” including a video of that training. For me I’d prefer to have a healthy dog also after agility. And this was the point when I thought it’s best to stop with practicing Agility with her. She did so well for years, achieved so much, was always faithful to me, so she deserved a retirement and enjoying life. Looking forward to many more years with her company.

And speaking of company. The year wasn’t all about Agility. It was also the year of making new experiencesnew friendships were born and having during the whole season good company. And this matters for me more than success.

The last big thing this past year was the Amadeus Agility Worldcup at Salzburg (Austria). As I wrote in Game changing weekend @Amadeus Agility Worldcup this was where I thought for the first time since March Cute and I found together as a team. It’s too early to boast it – I’d like to confirm it on some other competition – but I realized that all the trainings are starting to show some effects. It was definitely our best competition since a long time. And btw, we reached the semi-final 😉

After doing the planning for 2015 it makes clear the next year will be another ambitious one. I’m looking so much forward to it. And sometimes hard work gets rewarded. Back in September I got awarded at the honoring of sportsman of the community “Köniz” (see Sportehrung Gemeinde Köniz for report and photos) for winning the gold medal at the FCI Agility World Champs in Team.

Things got slowly into place by the end of this year. So, I say bye bye 2014 it was not always a pleasure but i had my fun with you. And I have this feeling 2015 will be the year of change. In which perspective? This I’ll keep my secret but I’m excited about it! But one thing will remain the same. I’m surrounded with amazing, crazy people. Thank you for putting up with me. You all made my year! So let’s celebrate tonight with lot of drinks, food, company and please let the hangover be as small as possible tomorrow 🙂

In this sense

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Your Simon.

A successfull competition

 

This is what I call a successful competition. 3 times podium with my girls…

On Saturday I wasn’t still sure if i should entry the competition on Sunday or not. After a few exercises with Ayla I decided to entry the show. For Ayla it was the first competition after a longer time and at the same time her last in Switzerland. So I tried to get everything out of us to show a absolute great tournament. And Ayla did it. She got 3rd in Jumping and 1st in Agility. I’m so proud of my older lady. And for the first time ever I had both of my girls on the same podium! ’cause Cute won the Jumping.

Das ist was ich ein erfolgreiches Turnier nenne. 3x Podest mit meinen Girls…

Noch am Samstag war ich mir nicht schlüssig, ob ich am Sonntag starten soll oder nicht. Nach einigen kleineren Übungen mit Ayla beschloss ich, mich für das Turnier anzumelden. Für Ayla war es das erste Turnier seit längerem und gleichzeitig ihr letztes in der Schweiz. So versuchte ich nochmals alles aus uns herauszuholen und einen überzeugenden Wettkampf abzuliefern. Und Ayla gab alles. Sie wurde 3. im Jumping und erreichte den 1. Platz im Agility. Ich bin so stolz auf meine ältere Dame. Und für das erste Mal überhaupt durfte ich mit meinen beiden Mädels auf demselben Podest stehen! Den Cute entschied das Jumping für sich.

Videos

 

Game changing weekend @ Amadeus Agility Worldcup

 

Alongside the yearly Amadeus Horse Indoors at Salzburg the Amadeus Agility Worldcup took place. Since 2010 agility takes place as part of the supporting program. And it attracts year over year more audience and competitors. Top handlers from Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Switzerland (of course 😉 ) are represented, just to name a few. The competition is constructed in three qualification runs, a semi-final and the final in the form of an american.

What’s an american?

An american is an other form of an agility or jumping run. It’s most comparable to snowboard parallel slalom. Two identical courses next to each other. jump start, faults, refusals and disqualifications get penalized with seconds added to the time run. The faster wins the round. The typical american runs in accordance with knock-out process.

I’m so delighted about Cute’s achievements. Indeed I trashed our first run, with a split second of inattention. But with friday’s second run – it was a Open-Agility judged by Otto Frühwirth (A) – we got qualified for the semi-final. It was a course with some key elements to get rid of. Cute did such a good and fast job that we earned the 1st place!
The Saturday morning started with the third and last qualification run – a Open-Jumping again judge by Otto Frühwirth. It looks like he’s our lucky judge or maybe it could also be the one-hand-turns, who knows… I just know Cute reached the 3rd place. And got qualified a second time for the semi-final. Ok this doesn’t matter, but anyway 🙂

Then in the afternoon the semi-finals started. To get to the final this round had to be a clean-run. It was a Agility-Open this time judge by André Maurer (LUX). Unfortunately (huh…I hate to start sentence with this word), Cute missed the slalom entry or I forced her to much. And there was the point where our gold-journey stopped immediately. But it continues for other Swiss and ended with the gold fever for Manuela Eichenberger and Win. My congratulations!

The evenings apart from the competition were good entertainment and a lot of fun. From horse shows via dinners and xmas market with mulled wine through to room parties everything was in the program. I was looking forward to this weekend and I didn’t get belied neither from a sportive nor from a private perspective. I am more than satisfied about the weekend with two top 3 places between all those good handlers and dogs. Thx to the organizers for such a well organized competiton, to all my friends for their company and to Cute to be so amazing.

Impressions of the AAWC 2014 and abroad

Videos

Agility SM’14 – Spannung pur

 

2014 ist definitiv nicht Cute’s und mein Jahr. Ein souveräner 0-Fehler Lauf in der Quali wär das Ziel gewesen um den Final zu erreichen. Doch…

Erstens kommt es anders und zweiten als man denkt.

Alen Marekovic (HR) stellte den ersten Qualifikationslauf. Es war ein Mix aus weiten, schnellen Sequenzen gepaart mit kurzen Distanzen. Alles in allem ein runder schöner Jumping. Im Hinterkopf, dass Cute bei hohem Tempo immer flacher springt wollte ich den Stangen zu stark vorbeugen und verfehlte das richtige Timing. Zu spät traf ich beim nächsten Sprung ein, um Cute den richtigen Weg zeigen zu können und ihn letztlich von der falschen Seite sprang. Von diesem Fehler abgesehen machte sich die kleine aber gut im Parcours. Ach ja, Stange fiel keine 🙂

Der zweite Qualifikationslauf wurde von Sandra Deidda (I) gestellt. Ein A-Lauf wie ich ihn gerne mag. Der zweite Sprung flach von hinten – in letzter Zeit unsere Paradedisziplin *Ironie!* – gelang uns tip top. Und wieder, keine Stangen! Gutes Cute 🙂 Aber gleich zwei Zonen Abgänge! Schlechtes Cute 🙁 Wie das? Kein Ahnung. Aber damit hatte es sich für uns auch.

Das ist aber kein Grund den Kopf in den Sand – ähm Mauseloch – zu stecken.

Der Rest der Schweizermeisterschaft verbrachten wir halt auf der Tribüne. Für einmal auch schön. Doch möchte ich mich nicht daran gewöhnen wollen 😛 Die Finalläufe vom Sonntag waren hervorragend gestellt. Schnell, mit technischen Details. Für Läufer wie fürs Publikum spannend. Und so wundert es kaum war in allen Kategorien nach dem ersten Finallauf noch völlig offen wer das Rennen machen wird. Insbesondere bei Large drängten sich 10 Teams in die gleiche Sekunde und weitere 6 in der Nächsten.

Der zweite Finallauf – besonders jener gestellt von Alen Marekovic für Large – bleibt in Erinnerung. 4x durch die ganze Halle hoch und wieder runter (gerade Tunnel, Sprünge von Aussen, Steg…), dazwischen technische, enge Passagen gespickt mit Verleitungen. Einfach ein Augenschmaus und Nervenkitzel pur.

In Small, Medium und Large konnte sich Martin Eberle jeweils seinen Podestplatz sichern! (Small Meister, Medium Vize und Large Meister) In Medium sorgte Letizia Grunder für die Sensation. Sie ist mit Nomade nun zum 3. mal in Folge Schweizermeisterin und insgesamt zum vierten Mal.

Ich möchte allen die das Podest erreicht haben herzlich Gratulieren.

Die Videos von Cute und mir gibt’s am Ende dieses Posts.

Und diese Teams haben es auf das Podest geschafft:

Large

1. Martin Eberle – French
2. Jeannine Gloor – U2
3. Lilian Arras – Joker

Medium

1. Letizia Grunder – Nomade
2. Martin Eberle – Kayo
3. Karin Schmiege – Shanty

Small

1. Martin Eberle – Eyleen
2. Claudia Schwar – Jet
3. Evelyne Hunkeler – Lenny

 

Videos