Words to the wise: Stay home (or just don’t enter) if you are invited to go to an agility trial in an unheated Virginia horse barn during the second week of December. It will take me a while to recover from this one.

The good parts were the dogs’ runs which were exceptionally wonderful, until the afternoon of day #2 when the handler’s brain became mush and she couldn’t form a complete “go tunnel” cue and “table” came out instead — or when she realized she meant to cross behind the weave poles at about the time she reached pole #5 and put on the brakes, causing poor dog to pop out (only two of many issues; it was u-g-l-y). Yet these canines forgive me for all the physical abuse they endured this weekend, crated in a barn with temperatures outside at 20 F and inside probably less. Blankets, coats, certainly, and they do have their own fur coats – but they had to feel it. Ever wonder what they’re thinking? 😉

• I wish I’d known it was going to be this cold.
• I wish I’d known how cold “this cold” is.
• I wish I’d known that it’s totally exhausting for a human body to try to adapt to extremely cold temperatures for long durations. If I’m whining, I’m sorry – we were there on Saturday from 7 AM until 8 PM, and the temperature never went above freezing; it started at about 13 and did not even approach a tolerable temperature.
• I wish I’d known that human muscles, tensed against frigid temperatures for many hours, get knotted and very painful.
• I wish I knew if that happens to dogs too, or if they truly are more resilient and didn’t go through what we went through.

All in all, a good time was had by all, and with the true optimism of an aging agility addict who feels there is only so much time left before she won’t be able to do this sport, I’m looking forward to next December’s trial.