Anyone going to NSTRA Trial in Front Royal, Va. this weekend

[AHGSP]

I'm going to observe a NSTRA Trial in Front Royal, Va. this weekend and was wondering if anyone here might also be going??

[Mary]

Where is it in Front Royal?
Do you have directions?
Might be fun to go see have not been to a NASTRA trial in yrs.
Mary

[AHGSP]

I hope this link to Mapquest works........

[Brent Walton]

Yes, I attended and entered the trial on Saturday. What a waste of time and money. First of all the trial was supposed to start at 8:00. However they decide to start at 7:30 instead without telling the people who entered. I was supposed to go on the 2nd brace witch was supposed to start at 8:30. I arrived at 8:00 after driving almost 3 hours and the chairman tells me I have 4 minutes to get ready before my brace. I wasn't a happy camper. The dog has been in a dog box for 3 hours and didn't even have time to do it's business before running. On top of that it was pouring down rain with thunder and lighting. We went out anyway. I had one rock hard point and couldn't find the bird because the bird boy had it buried under a mound of grass to try to keep it dry. Even my brace mate's dog pointed on the same bird and couldn't find it. I repositioned the dog again and still came up empty handed. I did find two other drowned birds that the wondered out onto a path but the dog just kinda walked up to them and keep on going. I handed the birds to the judge. The birds couldn't have been no more than a month or two old. No flight feathers at all. I stayed all day because my buddy was in the 14th brace. Upon watching the entire trial , I didn't see one bird take flight. What they did after the dog found the bird, they would walk over and pick the bird up after the dog broke it's point and throw the bird in air and make the dog retrieve. Then they where awared a retrieve. What a bum rap! I even took the opportunity to go over and look at the birds they where putting out. 3/4 of the birds in the pen didn't even have their tail feathers. Needless to say my buddy and myself didn't return for the Sunday trial. It wasn't worth the time or effort to attend. Being my first NSTRA trial I was very disappointed. I am not saying that NSTRA is a bad thing. I just believe that the perso putting this thing on could have done a better job making sure certain things where in better condition before establishing a trial like this. Another thing that wasn't very good also was the terrain. It was a pasture field with little or no cover, just green grass mainly. There was no cover for the birds to be placed in. So they just through them under a clump of green grass mainly. Why don't they just dizzy the bird up and place it down so that there is a better chance to establish a scent cone? I plan to attend other NSTRA trials in the future, but if I see more of this in the future, I will not be supporting that organization in the future.

[Mary]

Sorry to hear you did not have a positive experience.
I decided to not go as I do not do thunder & lightning and was just going to watch.
Hope your next experience will be much better NASTRA is a good organization.
Mary

[snips]

Puting on a trial with late spring conditions is very difficult. Not too much can be done about rain, and there is not a pen bird anywhere that will fly when wet. Birds this time of year are molting, and difficult if not impossible to even get them. Cover in spring is usually beat down from the winter and this time of yr the green is coming in. Maybe if you went on Sun it would have gone much better experience. I don`t agree with standing anyone up after putting in a trial, Trial chairmen work hard to put on a trial and it is not fair to them to leave them hanging. Sorry you were displeased, I just thought I would shed some insight to the other side of the coin.

[honeyrun]

Brent,

A friend of mine went down and ran his wirehair on saturday. He was the only person to fire a shot. He has run other dogs in NSTRA, and he didn't go back on sunday either. Running a dog in a Llama pasture is not his kind of trial.

[Brent Walton]

Cindy, I appreciate the reply. I'm glad that I wasn't the only one displeased. I was just really excited about that trial and
it ended up being a bust.
Brenda, I completely understand that the chairman does a lot of work to get ready for the trials. However, I am just speaking on my opinion. As for the rain that weekend, that was the luck of the draw. As for the bird field, I would have been ashamed to say I even had anything to do with chosing that bird field to put on a trial. And I know I would have atleast lined up some full grown birds to have for the trial molten or not. Those birds that day couldn't have been no more than 6 to 8 weeks old at that. It's like this: If you eat at a dining establishmnet and the service is bad, you typically don't go back and you ussally have bad things to tell others about that establishmnet. So, if you put on a bad trial, that same thing is going to happen. You are probally are going to have bad things said about it and people might not return again.
As for missing the trial on Sunday... I had better respect for my dog, and I felt like the dog would not benefit from this type of experience. It might have been a better day on Sunday, but in my opinion, it still wasn't worth the time or money to run the dog under those conditions. I do still plan to attend NASTA trials in the future. However, this particular one doesn't deserve any bragging rights. I do apprecaite the input though. Thanks to you both.

[AHGSP]

I ended up skipping out Sat., due to the torrential downpours and went to the Cluster at Timonium, Md. instead. It was still raining like the "bleep" Sun. at 10:00 a.m. and though it cleared and became a beautiful day later on, it would have been late by the time I got there, so I chose to just spend the day at home with the kids and pups. I wasn't entered, had planned on going to watch and learn, sounds like it may have been a good thing I didn't go. Birds have been extremely difficult for even the clubs to come by this Spring around here, so it wouldn't have been the 1st club this year that was scrambling to find useable birds and had to make do with what was available.....

[kninebirddog]

Wow ..sorry you didn't have a good time..
and as for birds well many of the people that sell birds some of them are a bit underhanded....They will sell birds even though they are contracted we see it happen...one guy actually tried to bring some young birds for a national trial...that didn't go over well at all many people where upset...but when your needing about 300 birds and there are alot of trials some of the bird people over sell to the trainers or i have seen them sell bird to other trials and leave some one high and dry or with baby birds
I know right now is a hard time to find mature birds people all over are scrambling
No excuse for the rial but don't blame the trial chairman unless they were the ones supplying the trial
at least everyone was having the same problem so that evened the playing field a bit rain is always is no fun wet birds no matter how old barley fly

have seen different formats of trials get dogs messed up over wet birds specially the AKC horseback trials where they blank theri birds ...bird hops and runs because it can't fly and dog breaks for the bird then gets picked up...

and as for the grassy terrains where the birds bury themselves...I learned the hard way about digging for birds if i have to watching how my dog is pointing had a trail where my one dog went on point 3 times and i didn't spend enough time digging just to have the next brace the guy get birds from all the spots my dog pointed..was a bit frustrating but I learned and the broad leaf grasses back east are hard to figure out being from Arizona grass is a concept lol
Hope it gets better and the next one you have fun at

[crosswind]

Anyone that trials knows what you went through.It is just something you have to learn to deal with if you are going to continue to trial.That trial chairman has no control over the weather.Have you ever been out hunting and it starts raining?Your dog can still perform in the rain.It may be something you have to do some training for,but it can be done.The rest of the people in that trial ran under the same conditions.As Brenda said it is a bad time of year to get birds.I would bet the birds were old enough,they just look half the size when they get wet.Most of the birds you get this time of year are breeder birds that were used for laying last season.Thats why they are molting.Either way young or old ,none do well in the rain.As far as the fields ,I can't speak for them I have never been there.Years ago when I got involved in NSTRA ,I was complaning to one of the national officers about some problems in our region.I found what he told me to be some what offensive,but on my way home from the trial it accured to me he was exactly right.He told me that if I didn't get involved in the region and help work toward a solution to the problems ,then I was just another part of the problem.Take it for what its worth.If you knew what that man went through to put that trial on you would probably think differently.Its possible he could have done better had he had some more help.

[TAK]

Anyone that trials knows what you went through.It is just something you have to learn to deal with if you are going to continue to trial.That trial chairman has no control over the weather.Have you ever been out hunting and it starts raining?Your dog can still perform in the rain.It may be something you have to do some training for,but it can be done.The rest of the people in that trial ran under the same conditions.As Brenda said it is a bad time of year to get birds.I would bet the birds were old enough,they just look half the size when they get wet.Most of the birds you get this time of year are breeder birds that were used for laying last season.Thats why they are molting.Either way young or old ,none do well in the rain.As far as the fields ,I can't speak for them I have never been there.Years ago when I got involved in NSTRA ,I was complaning to one of the national officers about some problems in our region.I found what he told me to be some what offensive,but on my way home from the trial it accured to me he was exactly right.He told me that if I didn't get involved in the region and help work toward a solution to the problems ,then I was just another part of the problem.Take it for what its worth.If you knew what that man went through to put that trial on you would probably think differently.Its possible he could have done better had he had some more help.

Great Post!