All of my posts about agility have been about Whisper's efforts. Lyric was injured about 1 1/2 yrs on her third novice jumpers leg. She flayed back some skin on her foreleg in a tunnel and never forgot. She earned her Novice Jumpers title but went no further-she hasn't wanted to play the agility game since.
It has been a long year and a half trying to convince her it really can be fun. Various training methods were tried and discarded. At times I would feel like I was making progress only to have her run out of the training area again. Along the way I learned less is more with her. I learned an actual agility class was way too much for her. Most of the recent training efforts concentrated solely on fun and playing chase. If she missed a jump I directed her to-oh well my goal was only that she was happy and running with me. Very little to no teaching weavepole entrances, front/rear crosses or actual competition skills. The months went by and I mostly concentrated on Whisper and recently Echo. I started catching glimmers that Lyric wanted her turn again. Two agility matches said she might. Over New Years Eve was a big three day trial. As she knew and I hope remembered the basics of agility from pre-injury I decided to enter her in Open Jumpers and see if she would stay in the ring and work with me. Qualifying runs were not a goal but would be a bonus. If she decided to stop or run out the ring I had decided I would give up and just continue training her in other areas.
The next posts will describe her weekend.
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