First off this was a AKC horseback field trial put on by the Oregon Brittany Club. They had a combination of all breed stakes and Brittany only stakes. I ran in open derby which was a Brittany only class.
I have been to a couple of field trials helping out, but had never rode a brace. My wife had never been to a field trial before. She was my "scout" for the trial. We were running on sunday but we went out on saturday and rode 3 amatuer gundog braces to get a feel for what exactly was going on. The first thing we noticed right off the bat was that the pace was alot quicker with the horses then i was expecting. First brace we fell behind multiple times. It was immediantly obvious why gaited horses are what everyone rides. We saw a couple nice runs, one really nice run which ended up being the winning dog for the class and some burnouts. After the braces we hung out for dinner and visited with everyone.....
Second big thing we noticed right off the bat was that everyone was extremely friendly and helpful throughout the weekend, everyone helped us and really made us feel welcome.
Sunday finally came and we rode 2 braces before it was our turn to get a feel for the derby, derby obviously was a whole different ballgame then watching gundog. dog work was kinda all over the place and it must be kinda interesting to judge.
Finally it was our turn to run. I felt pretty lucky in that my brace mate was a pro trainer and trailer that i had met in the past and he was a very nice friendly easy going guy. A good person to run with.
The brace itself was kind of a blur, tried to concentrate on keeping my pup moving out to the front, talked to her only when needed, and picked out a couple of points along the course for watering the dog ( all things that were recommended to me earlier) I know that i rushed a little through the brace....
Behind multiple times i heard the judges and gallery talking to my wife giving her pointers on how to help me as the scout, she did a good job and again i really appreciate everyone helping.
I was happy with how my dog was working, she wasn't ranging out as much as i expected, but she was listening and handling well....she ran over a bird being upwind of it and flushed it, chased a little but called off....Then finally with just a few minutes left she stuck a great point on the bird and held through flush and shot.
I was happy with how it all went, thanked the judges and the other handler....We loaded up and headed out.
I had absolutely great time as did my wife, we didn't hang around for placements for the day as it was a 16 dog class, mostly against pro's and i had no expectations of placing even though i felt happy with the performance for the first time out.....Well, my mistake i guess as i showed up this morning to look at pictures and at the tent was the gent that i ran with....He had a big grin on his face when he saw me and let me know that when you have a nice dog like mine you don't leave before placements are announced....and sure enough i Placed 4th out of the 16 dogs...total suprise and shock for me. I recieved a bunch of congrats from a bunch of people this morning and alot of praise for my dog as well......
Evidently only about half the class had a clean point and the judges were very impressed with how my dog handled...thus the placement, a little more run out from the horses was all that was missing but they felt like she had the potential to be a solid gundog......Needless to say i am hooked as well as my wife...
