My soldiers

Back home from Mississippi.  The National was in Vicksburg, which is steeped in Civil War history.  I am a history buff.  Last year's National was held near Gettysburg and of course the "girls" visited that battlefield as well if you blog followers remember.

Here they are, as "Civil War Era" as I could make them on the Vicksburg Battlefield.

Kenny and Arson made it to the sixth series.  It was a great effort, although we had hoped we would do better.  The sixth series quad looked look a civil war battlefield after it was done.  Many dogs went up in flames on a very difficult retired flier.  It was a great test and a great bird.

Darbi apparently does not share the same reverence for battlefields that I do.

Hunting Season is here!

Congrats to Harper!

She is a Prime x Darbi puppy and got two Senior Hunter passes in two starts!  Harper lives in Alaska and is trained and loved by Rod.

And Shaq x Miikka litter mates have been hunting up a storm in Alberta.

On the left is Tim and "Matti" and on the right is Rob and "Maggie".

I'm still in Mississippi at the US National and am having a great time.  Tests are hard and the dogs are amazing.

Miikka's baby daddy "Shaq" is here competing and he is doing fantastic.  I'm cheering him on, plus several other dogs that I enjoy or my friends run.

But, of course, I'm cheering on Arson most of all!

Pre-National Training

It has been a busy week.

The first part of the week I was in Giddings, Texas and then we picked up and moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi a couple days ago.

Pre-National training is for dogs qualified for the US National and it is an intense week.  It is an atypical week as this is the only time of the year where the "pros" train together.  It is fascinating to see the different nuances in their training style and also fun to see some of the top dogs in the country up close and personal.

There were two (and one day FOUR!) previous National winners in our group this year and some other top dogs from across the country.

For some reason that escapes me, the majority of pros that I know have "truck dogs".  These are little dogs that travel the country with them.  I think the pros have these little guys because they generally don't own any personal field trial dogs of their own (conflict of interest).

This is the newest "truck dog" on the circuit.  His name in Mario and he is a 9 week Italian Greyhound.  He was cute as a button!!

Kenny is running "Arson" (FC FTCH LKY's Controlled Burn) at the National this week.  He had a good week training, so now we keep our fingers crossed he gets lots of good luck.

How many pros does it take to set up a training test?

A lot, I learned.

This is one dog we trained with.  His name is "Buster" and he is 2010 NAFC FC Fourleaf's Ice Breaker.  What a handsome guy.

I also took a couple pics of our good friend Scott Dewey with the three dogs he has qualified.  Good luck to "Louie", "Colonel" and "Inca"!

New 4 legged friend

This is my new guy!!

He lives in Indiana and I bought him a few days ago.  Now I'm trying to figure out logistics to get him to Colorado.

He is a thoroughbred and was retired as a race horse after having a short, lacklustre career.

Everyone who knows me knows horses are my first love.  I haven't ridden much since selling my last show horse about 10 years ago.  I've slowly been getting back into it by taking lessons at a hunter/jumper barn.

Hopefully this guy is as talented as he is gorgeous.

His registered name is Val's Reward and I'm going to give him a new nickname. I can't wait to meet him!!