MAGGIE TEARS IT UP IN FIRST HORSEBACK TRIAL!

Pine Straw Magpie had a great start to her horseback trials. On March 1-2 Maggie took 1st in the Open Puppy and 3rd in the Open Derby at the Old Dominion Vizsla Club's Spring Field Trial. I haven't had much time to run her in trials lately due to a busy work schedule, so we asked Jamie Fountain of Oconee Kennels to run her in some horseback trials during the month of March.

Maggie takes her first blue ribbon!

Pine Straw Magpie took first place in the GSP Club of Middle Tennessee's Amateur Puppy stake on December 29th, 2012. Maggie had an amazing race and very pretty find during her brace. She garnered lots of compliments. Maggie made some serious moves, rimmed the field edges and tore through the likely cover. Maggie put in the performance of a much older dog. While we have been impressed with her thus far, Maggie's performance in this trial just blew us away.

Katie takes top spot in horseback stake, Hawk gets a 2nd in his.

The Central Georgia Pointing Dog Club held an American Field/AKC dual sanctioned horseback field trial December 21-23, 2012. Pine Straw Blackhawk started it off by taking second place in the 15 dog Open Shooting Dog stake. The following day his mom, RUCH Pine Straw Katydid, grabbed 1st place in the Open Restricted Shooting Dog stake with an impressive 4 finds. This is Katie's second placement this fall; Hawk's was his 3rd placement of the season.

Pine Straw Blackhawk takes 2nd in horseback trial.

On December 19, 2012 Pine Straw Blackhawk took 2nd place in the Open Shooting Dog stake of the Mid-Florida Brittany Club's American Field/AKC dual sanctioned horseback trial. Hawk had two good finds in his bid and put in an impressive race. Thanks to Jamie Fountain who handled Hawk in the horseback trial.

Maggie gets a 4th place and also earns Junior Hunter title.

PINE STRAW MAGPIE - Maggie earned her AKC Junior hunter title this fall with 4 qualifying scores in 4 attempts. She was well liked by the judges and given great scores. This isn't competitive like field trials, but it is a great way for a young dog to get accustomed to horses, bracemates, judges, other handlers, and a field trial atmosphere.

Maggie also recently (Nov. 18) took 4th place honors at the GSP club of Atlanta field trial walking puppy stake. Maggie had a good run and great puppy finds on birds. We look forward to seeing what kind of a trial dog she matures in to.

Breeding Katie - Sire Chosen

We have decided that when Katie comes in we will be breeding her to 4 time Runner-Up Champion High Desert Devil (formerly Uppercove Desert Devil) AKA Grumpy. Grumpy is by Shady Hills Billy X Timberdoodle Ohsobad. Our thoughts are that his pedigree matches up well with Katie's, and I have seen him run and he is truly a bird dog. We like that Grumpy has won on wild birds and on released quail. This breeding won't be advertised until we actually breed her, but for those that watch our blog, we thought we'd give a head's up. Here is a photo of Grumpy nailing a woodcock.

Wisconsin Trip for Grouse and Woodcock

In Mid October we took a trip to Northern Wisconsin, one of our favorite places to be, to do some Grouse and Woodcock hunting. Although we've hunted grouse and woodcock a lot, we didn't want to have to spend a lot of time looking for good coverts, so we went with Back Forty Guide Service.

Three of the Setters made the trip along with a vizsla and a wirehaired vizsla. We had some wet and windy weather that kept the grouse in the thick stuff. Smudge and Katie both had some points on grouse. Katie nailed one 247 yards out according to the Garmin and she was standing beautifully when we got there, and the vizsla, Kate, backed her nicely. The last point of the trip Smudge locked up on a woods road standing beautifully in the sunshine. Little Maggie emerged from the woods behind him and froze into a beautiful honor. Of course I was a bit too far away and when Maggie heard the grouse rustling in the leaves, she bolted past poor Smudge and took a pair of grouse out right in front of him. Oh, the fun of puppies...

The best bird work came on the woodcock though. We had timed it right and the flight birds were in. That is something you have to experience at least once. We limited everyday but one, and that was because I was trying to only shoot them over Maggie when she pointed. And she did have several very nice finds on woodcock. She is definitely a bird dog. In three days (two full days and two half days) of hunting we had nearly 60 points on woodcock. And that was with some of the time spent looking specifically for grouse.

It was definitely a worthwhile trip, and was good to shoot some birds for the Setters.