Made Me Smile

"Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want."

--- Abraham and Esther Hicks

It was finally summer in Minnesota today. What a glorious day. As I took Reason out to potty this morning, he caught a whiff of something near the tree he was about to pee on and when I looked, I saw a healthy little tree frog just sitting there taking in the warmth of the day. That put a smile on my face.

Tree frog in the front yard 

Later on in the day, I set up two Susan Salo grids from one of her "Repeaters seminars" to run Score and Schema on. It was a grid that both of them had issues with in the past because of the spacing - Schema has had an issue compressing from extension and Score has had an issue extending from compression. I ran that grid hard with Score and he was fluid and strong. That put a smile on my face.


Schema did the sequence beautifully - even the parts she usually has difficulty with. So, I changed the height of two of the jumps from 22 (which is what she always jumps in practice) to 24". Schema had some initial issues in the section that she has had in the past with that height change. She got herself too close to the jump after the double and then tried to lift her head to get her body over the next jump. She is so athletic that this can sometimes save her jumps, but I don't want her doing that because that just means she is not reading her jumps correctly and jumping with poor form. That is wear and tear on her body. I want fluid, proper jumping from her. I added a foot in the compression section after the double and placed a diagonal bar in front of the jump that she had issues with. When I added that foot and the diagonal on the next jump, she jumped that sequence beautifully. I took away the diagonal bar and she did it nicely again. Then I put the jumps back to the initial spacing without that extra twelve inches and it was still good. These kinds of sessions where I can get her to figure it out on her own really make me smile.


Then, I got Reason out while I put away all the jumps. He is such an amazing dog. With all he's been through, he is still having the time of his life. He was doing his floating trot and smiling through that gray face of him. Demanding that I kick the toy. Living life to the fullest. THAT REALLY MADE ME SMILE!!

Kick that toy!

Relaxing in the hot weather

I want that toy!

Love you Reas!