Getting Nervous for the Sunflower trial

I have to admit, I am getting very nervous for the Sunflower trial. I really should have entered him in novice preferred so we could jump 16 inches but I guess I also thought we would be able to get out and train more than we have. Miller was released on the 6th of January to start back training and I have been faithfully doing jump chutes and channel weaves spread apart to get him back into shape. Now this is all done in my backyard which started out still having about 5 inches of snow which has slowly melted. We are now down to a crust of snow with some hard ice on top of it. Needless to say, Miller did not want to work today and I didn't get much out of him. I did take him to a friend's place last night and got some good work out of him. Still mainly doing jump chutes and tunnels as I don't have any contact obstacles to get him on other than my teeter. Lori's field is soup so need to get him on an a-frame or dog walk if it all possible soon!

I did have a little scare last night and I want to talk about it. We were at an indoor softball training facility that has turf down. We were just doing jump chutes and I decided to go ahead and do some crosses. He had been doing great, even got to work on some start line stays as he was so amped he kept on breaking them. Anyway, was doing some crosses and he slipped on the turf and fell. He got up and seemed to be favoring his other leg, the one that wasn't initially injured. I was a little worried but he seemed to walk out of it and then stretched nicely. He did have a little knot in his glute muscle which I worked out but it still scared me. I was very careful today to make sure he was okay and used the ball to really stretch him out. He is still jumping okay and is coming up to take treats and staying up on both back legs so I think he is okay. I really desperately need an indoor place to train and love training with my training partners so I really want this place to work out. I really don't want to have to spend the rest of his career babying him and worrying about every little misstep. It makes me a nervous wreck and I know if will affect how I run courses and i don't want that. So, I guess I have two choices, retire him from agility for good, or just not worry about his every little move and see how he does. I do know when I baby him or over-analyze his every move, I think he acts worse. He has always been a tough dog so I know that this injury that he has battled really was bothering him. I have a the sunflower show in a week and I just hope he won't re-injure himself our very first show out. USDAA nationals is going to be for sure in KY so I have to get to as many shows as possible to get him qualified since we are behind. I am trying to be cautious about his comeback and will probably pull him from the four day Truine trial and just show him 2 days just to be safe. We are cutting back to just 2 days for out of town trials and we are going to probably cut out some trials as well. I just hate it because agility is my hobby and is my favorite thing to do in life and I hate having to give it up but need to do what is best for miller and also what is best financially. Tony did get laid off today but they think it will only be for a week or two so we should be okay. Well, time for me to get off of here and get ready to go out. One last going out night before we are poor!!!!!