Monday, December 5, 2011

Success again - great weekend trialing







We spent Friday and Saturday trialing at Dallas Pointer and Setter FTC trial at Wortham, TX - Parrs Tucker was 2nd in the Open Shooting dog stake behind RU CH Barshoes Top Gun (Ace) owned by Terry Tuley and handled by Jerry Lewis - Whiterock Cordite finished 3rd.

In the Open Derby - Arbuckle's Aces Annie was 1st place. It was a great win but I think Cody paid a high price for it - I had to ride hard to keep from getting buried by the other handler and when we finished Cody was bleeding bright red blood from his nose - and now I will be looking for a replacement and back up to Cody and Lacy.

Here are the runs as I saw them.

Tucker ran a big edge covering shooting dog race, well forward and using the wind great - his first find came near a mott of trees and he handled it well. He had a back after that and finished with a beautiful find well forward on a great cast.

Rocky - Had three beautiful perfect finds - however, his race was not as forward as Tucker and he looped a bit more than I would have liked - we will start running edges more with him and keep on him about staying in the pocket - still a nice performance.

Annie - God, I loved this run and I loved doing it on my beautiful old field trial horse he carried me to yet another win and gave his all to do it for me. Annie took off running big on edges and responding to ques from both my voice and Cody as we turned and put her on edges and blew her go whistle - she went - cracking her tail and putting the spurs to her brace mate (2nd place dog). The other handler was riding hard pushing his dog and Annie stayed up in front of the dog - checking likely cover as she went - she had no finds and after watering her I had to gallop Cody to catch the other handler, and he responded, even though it hurt him.

Near the end of time in the stake, After Annie cooled a bit in a pond I road up on the tank dam and blew her go whistle finishing well forward at the end. A winning performance.

Now the others - Tio had 3 broke finds, including a covey find on wild/feral birds but did not back in time and he was a little short (will put him up for sale as a gun dog) but a nice dog - just not a field trial dog.

Primo - Ran a nice forward shooting dog race taking the edges and responding well, had a broke find, and after leading him off (handler error - should have lead him further off) and releasing him he went back and pointed the previous birds that were left (delayed chase) and I picked him up - but still getting better on everything a very nice dog.

Dot - Had the performance of the stake - until her 3rd find. We broke away with Dot finding the front and staying on the left tree line (wind was coming left to right) through the gap and ran on the right tree line to her first and beautiful high and tight broke find on quail in a cedar, plum tangle. Watered her and turned her loose and off she went finding the front in a big and forward, cover and ground eating shooting dog race. She hit an edge and dropped into a creek as I continued forward singing to her and lost sight of her - knowing Dot doesn't get lost and always finds the front going with me whether she can see or only hear me - I kept going forward with my scout dragging the edge in case she was buried up on point in there and I missed it.

We broke into the open and Dot showed in front coming with me (evidently she followed the steep banked creek all the way up until she found a place to get out) and came to me - as she crossed to the front she had a beautiful find. As I was walking towards the cover, the bird flushed and flew over her head, She moved only her head to watch it go - I fired a blank and she was as steady as a rock - I turned her loose and tried to put her on another edge but she continued on down and found another bunch of birds - they were walking in plain sight and when I kicked and fired it was too much for her and she broke.

Both the judges rode up to me after I corralled her and had her in the harness and thanked me for running Dot - they loved her - had she continued on and handled those birds correctly there is no doubt she would have won the stake.

Even though she is a edgy dog I love Dot - she is what awesome field trial dogs are made of - awesome and breathtaking when they do it right - heartbreaking when they mess up because they are always in the hunt for the ribbon/trophy.

Keith - Posting from Under the Live Oaks