Walking Field Trial

SKYLINE BRITTANY CLUB
WALKING FIELD TRIAL
MAY 10-11, 2008

Location

Walking Field Trial is run a at the former Sporthaven facility (owned by Dave Lincoln) just a few miles north of Bennett, CO and close to the Denver Metro Area. This event has been a success since its inception and continues to draw in NSTRA folks and hunters as well as our "hardcore" field trialers. We generally have great weather this time of the year and a great time is had by all. Chef Ern and his trusty breakfast chef Joan serve up great breakfast burritos, steaming hot coffee and pastries in the morning and a great BBQ at lunch.

Joyce and Dave Lincoln are wonderful hosts and we greatly appreciate their letting us run on their beautiful property. The Gun Dog course is bottom land along Kiowa Creek and is lined with trees and abundant cover and several man made ponds to keep the dogs cool and to give the birds a drink as well. The Puppy and Derby course have both open areas and great tree lines and allow the young dogs to show their potential to the judges.

Premium, Bracings & Results

You can find the premium, bracing sheets and results of all our trials posted at http://www.fieldtrialnews.com by checking the calendar of events.

Walking Field Trial Recap

The Skyline Brittany Club would like to start out by saying thank you to everyone who helped make this walking trial a success; Matt Clyker for Chairing the event; our judges; Mike Katzenberger, Rex Christensen, Scott Wilson, David Towner, Charlie Rose, Leslee Masolotte, Steve Bailey, Jeff Hoskins; Joan and Ernie Peters as usual for their great cooking. The walking trial has been a success since its inception and allows people with good dogs who would otherwise not compete in field trialing to get a taste of this type of event. It is great for getting people started and offers more observers to watch from the gallery, especially in the puppy and derby events and the early part of the gun dog events.

On Saturday, we were treated to just about every kind of weather possible out in Bennett, CO. It rained, it snowed, it hailed, the wind howled at time and we got in a little sunshine in the end. The judges, Mike and Scott, said it was a very good Amateur Gun Dog stake, despite the (rarely ever heard), "too many birds on course." Most, if not all dogs had bird work but it seemed as though there was something in the air, as not many made it through the course clean. The judges said that despite the breaking, that the style and the run the dogs showed was impressive. The course on which the puppy and derby stakes were run had an enticing berm on the east side that caught the eye of the bigger running dogs, making it a little bit harder for the foot handlers to get their dogs back around to the end of the course. The Open Puppy and Open Derby entrants also got great reviews from the judges who got to see a lot of run, great pointing and lots of potential in the young dogs on the ground. After dealing with the weather on Saturday, everyone was looking forward to a sunny Sunday.

As a little antidote: Mike Katzenberger at one time spent a good bit of time training dogs and running weekend training sessions. Mike is responsible for getting a number of current Skyline members interested in dog training and field trialing. It was great to see Mike back in the saddle again.

Saturday's Placing Brittanys:

2^nd Place Open Puppy: DeCan's Fire Starter (B), Hali is owned by Andi Christensen and handled by Ben Garcia.
1^st Place Open Derby: Windtuck's So Far So Good (B), Sophie is owned and handled by Leslee Masolotte.

The Open Gun Dog judges, Rex and David, raved about the dogs they saw. Rex, who hasn't been out to a field trial since the late 1990's, said that they got to see a lot of clean bird work and mentioned how he appreciated the general intensity and style he saw. The Am Puppy and Am Derby were again, great stakes. Many of the young dogs are sure to become hearty contenders in the adult stakes in the future. It's always fun to watch the young ones and they learn and mature.

Galery
Open Gun Dog Winner
CH Rainbow's Covey Cadet JH (Sailor)
Owned by Katie Beauchamp

Sunday's Placing Brittanys:

4^th Place Amateur Puppy: DeCan's Fire Starter (B), Hali is owned by Andi Christensen and handled by Ben Garcia.
1^st Place Amateur Derby: Dem Bones (D), Bones is owned and handled by Dave Lincoln.
1^st Place Open Gun Dog: CH Rainbow's Covey Cadet JH (D), Sailor is owned by Katie Beauchamp and handled by Ben Garcia.
3^rd Place Open Gun Dog: Okie Cracker (D), Cracker is owned and handled by Dave Lincoln.
4^th Place Open Gun Dog: Rainbow's Brutus JH (D), Brutus is owned by Pat Beauchamp and handled by Ben Garcia.

Galery
4^th Place Amateur Puppy
DeCan's Fire Starter (Hali)
Owned by Andi Christensen