Holiday Field Trials ("trial" being the key word!)

After a week full of very mild winter weather - a cold front decided to sweep through in time for our field events. ICK. The Lone Star Borzoi Club's ASFA trial was the Friday after Thanksgiving. It was overcast but in the mid to high 30s, with a brisk north wind to top it off - at least it was dry. Nothing like trying to do paperwork while it keeps attempting to escape the table (I had on my Field Trial Secretary hat). I was also very rusty since I had managed to avoid performing in the FTS capacity for a while - but I pretty much just got stuck with it this time around. Got through the trial ok - but it remains to be seen as to whether or not I survive getting the trial records ready to mail in to ASFA. At this trial we only ran Magik - the ever-creative Magik, who is still in disagreement with the course designers. She tends to be a better 2nd day runner - so we were hoping for a less Picasso-esque performance at the next day's Regional. We did bring the Monkee-kids for practice - Wulf, Buster and Faina all turned in promising runs, with Wulf showing the most interest in killing the bags at the end. Peepers was a huge disappointment - I was expecting much more after Victor told me how well she did at earlier practices. She failed a certification - and had a pooper of a practice run after that - quitting after the first turn. Harli was a mess too - and then we had to catch her. She has apparently been speaking to the Pharaoh Hounds about how to avoid being caught after a run.

Saturday morning arrived much too early...as did the rain. And roll call - an hour earlier than the day previous. We had 3 entries for the day - Solo, Monkee, and Magik. We weren't really expecting anything all that competitive from the girls - but Solo was another story. Despite a nice performance from him in an attempt to win a trophy for the bench champions (it was our region's invitational trial) - he received some dreary results to go hand in hand with a dreary day. It's a bit upsetting to see a dog that did not finish the course in finals before I had already picked up my runner in the course, score higher than one that did. Granted it was due to a tumble about 3/4 of the way through, but still, it took a long time to get to the finish, and not in working style. But oh well - there's always next year (or maybe when Solo's a veteran ).

Sunday I opted for a day at home while Victor attended the trial. I had had enough of the cold and wet (I don't like to be cold, nor do I like to be wet...both - forget it!) He just took the ever-creative Monkee (she and Magik share their opinion of course designers) - and she opted to go back to her enormously creative state, although she had shown an inclination to follow much more than usual at the Regionals.