Marc and Jenny entered their first field trial ever this past weekend along with Karma’s cousin Gunner and his Handler/Mom, Heather. Marc and Jenny wanted to enter to get Karma in a testing scenario – horses, different brace mate, new grounds, etc. We had zero expectations as we don’t train our dogs to ditch us and haul it to the first bush in a field. Field Trial Judges look for (in their words) the “super athlete” they want to see big, big, big running along with the bird skills. We actually hunt over our dogs, so this huge run isn’t a practical goal for us to train/allow our dogs to do. But, the testing aspects would be similar to a hunt test, and we were excited about the opportunity to hang with Heather, so we sent in the entry fees.
To say it was a little bit of the blind leading the blind is an understatement. Jenny and Heather were texting and calling back and forth the week prior, and then there were lots of calls and texts to Jaime (Calibre Vizslas – Tok & Gunner’s Breeder) to get questions answered and recommendations for scenario handling. We thought we were all set.
Ahem…so we weren’t exactly all set. Heather gets a call early Saturday morning to make sure she is on her way for the WALKING stake. But, I thought that was tomorrow — nope today. Oops, quick text and call to Jenny to make sure she and Marc know too. (Jenny & Marc’s phones are silenced — need our beauty sleep). Luckily, Jenny woke up at 7:15, saw the texts, called Heather, woke-up Marc, loaded up Karm, and hit the road. Hmm, the good news was the field trial was running 30 minutes late, so if we drove 80 mph we just might make it there for Karma’s brace which should start around 10:10. We make it to the little town by 9:45 and the fields are another 30 miles, we’ll make this easy. Unclear driving directions, so a few u-turns, calls from Heather that she is stalling, bump up the driving to 90 mph, and pull up to the field in the nick of time.
We throw a collar on Karm, can’t find a lead, so clip her to a check cord (this is quite humorous at this point) and realize we didn’t grab a cap gun on the way out the door. Quickly acquire one from a stranger on the way to the line, and off Marc & Karm go! I’d love to say Karma took off like a banshee, but that didn’t so much happen. She had no range, not typical of Karma — especially lately. But in all fairness, it was a little bit of a whirlwind morning. Add in the thick cover, which was up to Karma’s head and she was bounding her little heart out. She did find two birds, but we knew that with little distance between her and Marc she wasn’t going to be in the running for anything, which we weren’t expecting anyway. Our priceless moment did come when the other dog pointed, Karma stopped to honor (on her own – yay!), then they flushed the bird and the other dog took chase — which is totally allowed at this level. But our little Karma held! The bird and dog went flying by her and she stayed 🙂 We have been working on stop to flush for her Senior level hunt tests and this was a great test of her new skills! Marc called her the other way and off they went. So, so proud of our little girl — she had too much fun, making the $40 entry fee and $100 in gas money worth it!
Unfortunately, because of our late start, we didn’t get to watch Heather and Gunner, but he went birdless, which is a total bummer, because unlike Karma, he actually ran! But we got to spend some quality time together before heading back to Denver with our very happy and content bird dog.
While we didn’t enter the horseback stakes, Heather did try her luck again today, this time from horseback. Not only did Gunner keep up his good running distance, but he found two birds! This was good enough for a 4th placement for Heather and Gunner! So exciting! We were up at Pat & Jacqueline’s for a little dinner party featuring pheasant enchiladas (courtesy of our little hunters Pat & Zeke). Initially, we got a text that Gunner didn’t get a placement, and then on the way home we got the text that Heather’s first source was mistaken! So, so cool to go out and win on your first try 🙂
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