What’s old is new again

This is Tristan. He just turned nine. He is my first agility dog.  He’s fast, he’s reliable, and until a few months ago, I thought he was retired.
From the age of 2 he has had a series of orthopedic problems that have rendered him lame on and off for the majority of his life.  He is intense, even by border collie standards, and as such, is very hard on his body, which I think has contributed to his frequent injuries.  Last year I finally had his structure evaluated and it was pointed out that his lower back was particularly inflexible. It was suggested that we get him under the care of both a chiropractor and acupuncturist, which after some searching and false starts, we did.  The end result of this effort is that Tristan, or “T” as we affectionately call him are competing again, albiet at an easier level of competition at lower than regulation jump heights, with an option to avoid the obstacles most difficult on a dog’s body, a class custom made for dogs like “T., known as the “specialist” class.
Over the weekend, Tristan had two runs and in both, had times that were faster than many of the non-specialist dogs.  Even though we had not really been training, he always followed my direction, doing exactly what I asked.
In the end he got two first places in his two runs, but that wasn’t the most important thing. For me the best thing was simply running him again, because agility is what makes Tristan the happiest, and it brought me great joy to be able to let him do it again.
Below is Tristan's Color's run in which he had the fastest time of any of the dogs that trial: