"If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success."

Today Noodle and I headed south...way south...to a rally trial. I had two purposes - to practice for Rally Nationals coming up in a couple months, and also to see if I could nab a couple double Q's towards our RAE title.

Noodle started off ok, although she was pretty distracted by the people eating donuts right along the ring fence (why? Just why?). Our first run was Excellent, and she scored a 97 and 4th place. Second run was Advanced, she was distracted by the donuts, we scored a 90. We had two more runs in the afternoon, coring a 95 in Excellent and a 95 in Advanced, for two double Q's. Noodle did everything correctly, but she was very uninspired and unmotivated. I am not sure why - maybe she is thinking about coming into season? She definitely is due. Or maybe this just wasn't as fun for her as all the other things we do. Who knows? I need to work on getting her enthusiasm up before nationals. I don't expect we will do any placing there, but it would be nice to get a Q or two.

Today I got to do something really cool! All three of my crazyes (Noodle, Pizza, and Dolphin) were test subjects for Agility Innovations Leveraging Electronics (AGILE). Here are a couple of links that will give you more information - it's fascinating!

   •  AGILE - AGility Innovations Leveraging Electronics Facebook Page
   •  Agility Innovations Leveraging Electronics (AGILE) (Georgia Tech)

I was pretty proud of my three beasts - they were all motivated, happy, and kind of excited to be the focus of so much attention. Dolphin was my big surprise, he really ate that up and showed off his amazing LOOOONG stride. I can't wait to follow and see how these tests help develop this new technnology.

Sometimes dreams are just that - dreams.

No one had more dreams than I did when it came to Cadence. A miscarriage, a stillborn foal, then third time was a charm and I finally had my second-generation breeding that I had been planning and trying for 4+ years. This filly was everything I had hoped for - big, beautiful, talented, and sweet. So many plans, so many dreams.

Unfortunately not every dream has the destiny of becoming reality. In March of 2022 Cadence tore her suspensory. After 8+ months of stall rest, hand-walking, and such, we started her back to light riding and discovered that with her injury she just wasn't going to be able to handle the work it was going to take to get her back in riding/showing condition. I made the heartbreaking decision to retire her. She is only 5 years old, but she is everything to me and I can't let her be in pain just to fulfill MY dreams.

So Cadence is officially retired. My dream is officially retired. I am bringing her to my wonderful friend Janet Fox Smith's house where she can live in comfort and hang out with her momma Corky. Maybe some day I will be financially (and mentally) able to breed her and produce my third generation, but right now it isn't in the cards.

I have been very quiet about her this past year, mainly because thinking of it brings me to tears. I had to break the silence today, it's time to talk about it and put those dreams to bed. The whole situation was just a bad deal for me, in so many ways that I won't get into on here. I am crushed and disappointed, but to be honest, the disappointment had been growing for the past couple years. It's time for me to step back and heal. Maybe my future will hold another new foal to hang my dreams on, or maybe not. Time will tell.

Can you believe my puppy boy is THREE??? How did that happen? Dolphin got to do some field training on his birthday. He started doing a weird thing - he scents the bird and comes in closer, goes on point, and then as I approach (usually from a good distance), he will shift and move to the side and then go on point again, and then move away to the other side and then go on point again and this time hold. He did this consistently with the birds he found. Pressure, maybe?

On the first bird, he held nicely through the flush, but broke on the shot and did a retrieve of a big ol' chukkar. I am trying to get him to hold through the shot (even though he doesn't need to in Senior), but I don't want to get after him quite yet as I want to keep his enthusiasm high. The second bird was missed, or just barely winged, and flew off and landed on the ground in the trees REALLY far away. Dolphin broke on the shot and was searching but couldn't find it. He came back to me, and I walked part of the distance to the tree line where I new the bird went, and he ran ahead of me and this time found the bird, picked it up (still alive), and brought it to me.

The best thing is that I think he is getting the hang of honoring! The first two times, I had him sent on running way ahead of me, and both times he stopped on his own when he saw the other dog on point. The first time I said "whoa" and he turned to me, and I had to redirect his attention. The second time, I shut my stupid mouth and he stood there watching the other dog and never moved until I got up next to him...yay!. Note to self - less is more...shaddup!

It was a cold but sunny day, perfect for a field trial! Noodle had the privilege of going first. Her first stake was the Open Gun Dog stake. Her bracemate got picked up fairly early, so it was the all-Noodle show. Noodle did not disappoint - she ran big and strong and had at least 3 beautiful points that I can remember. She did awesome, and ended up with a 3rd place! Her first field trial placement!

After a few hours break, Noodle ran in Amateur Gun Dog. She was even better than her earlier brace - ran big and hard, 2 or 3 beautiful points. At one point, she ran way out and over the hill and across the ridge - completely out of sight! Being on foot was definitely a handicap. The judge rode her horse over the hill and saw her out hunting, Noodle then figured out where she was (in relation to me) and came back, still running strong. She had a super nice honor right at the beginning, really kind of shocked me that she did that completely away from me...sure wish she would do that at hunt tests! She ended up with another nice 3rd place!

Since there was still a lot of daylight left, they decided to go ahead and run the Open LTD gun dog stakes, which Pizza was entered. She had been sitting around in the van all day long, so I wasn't sure what dog I would have when we stepped to the line. Pizza surprised me in a good way! Man, this girl had a nice big run on her - ran HUGE! She and her bracemate had a divided find at the beginning that ended up being a fresh, bloody wing (looks like a hawk got the quail that had been planted). We went on and had a really nice point in some brush that she handled perfectly. She soon went on point again, this time with a bird that wanted to run instead of fly, she stood rock-solid and was perfect.

It was towards the end of the brace, and she was still running super strong. She took off over a hill and was completely out of sight for a while. The judge rode up to the top of the hill and found her down in the valley standing staunchly on point. She never moved an inch while I climbed up and over the hill to go work the bird. Once again, handled perfect and off we went.

By this point it was towards the end of our 30 minute time, and she was still running HUGE! I was so freaking proud! Time was called, I leashed her up, and back we went. Once all the braces were finished, we sat in the clubhouse and waited for placements. I was completely shocked and excited when they called Pizza out in FIRST PLACE! 2 points toward her field championship! I doubt if we will ever get that far, but it is thrilling to have a nice win on her record!

Since Noodle was done (that poor girl was EXHAUSTED yesterday!), only Pizza had to go to the field trial today. All we had left was the Amateur Limited Gun Dog. Pizza was pretty fired up, she didn't seem at all tired from the day before. Once she got going at the start of the brace, she was all business.

About a fourth of the way in, I developed a massive leg cramp in my left calf, and it felt like knives stabbing my leg. This lasted through the entire brace (and into the evening!). Thankfully Pizza was confident enough to keep on rolling way ahead of me. She had the most gorgeous honor - her brace mate was on point, she came flying up over the hill about 100 yards from me, and she SKIDDED to a stop on the hill when she saw the dog on point. I had to hobble/climb up the hill to stand by her as the other dog worked the bird. It was the COOLEST thing to see!

She found two or three birds, it was all such a blur I can't remember. She handled all of them perfectly, which was good since my leg hurt so bad there was no way I could quickly get to her while she was on point. Man, she was such a beautiful sight to watch run and hunt, and I know the judges were impressed by the comments they were making.

I was over the moon when they read the placements and Pizza WON again!!!! We now have 5 points towards our field championship...unbelievable! I am SO incredibly proud of her - she and I are fairly new to this field trial thing, and once I got the guts to stop managing her and she figured out she could run on and hunt ahead as far as she wanted, we started to gel and it was beautiful. I got a lot more confident as I know that she can range out as far as she wants, and when she goes on point she will stand there for ages waiting on me to catch up. This is a big step forward in our training.

There is just SO much to love about this dog - a grand champion in conformation, a master hunter, and now halfway (in points, if nothing else) to her field championship! I know finishing her FC is a bit of a pipe dream for us, but it's fun to think that it might be a teeny tiny possibility!

Today was one of those days where you just can't find any good reason NOT to be outside. I would call today our first "real" spring day - low 70's and sun sun sunny! I spent the evening starting to set up my agility yard outside, and ran Dolphin through some sequences...he was a wild man because he desperately wanted the rope toy I was using for motivation. I did some double retrieves with him...the problem I have is that he will run out and grab the first object for the retrieve, then carry it over to the second one, put it down, then pick the same object back up and bring it to me, then will go out for the second one. Kind of weird. I even did some double retrieves with Pizza - she did great!

Today was a better day, after a couple of days of lackluster training. On Monday, I took Dolphin to train some agility with my friend and he was a slug. He had ran around a lot outside on Sunday and also early Monday, so by late Monday afternoon he was done. It was a frustrating session. He rallied on Tuesday night with some really good scent work training.

This morning I went to train Pizza in agility with a friend of mine. Can you say distracted??? Pizza was all over the place - leaving me to climb all over my friend, leaving me to eat crumbs off the ground, leaving me to smell the walls, it was super difficult to keep her engaged. Now I realize this isn't as exciting as the field trial, but I don't normally have this much trouble when training with one other person.

I walked around the property this evening in the sunshine, with my dogs running and playing, and talked myself out of a training funk. These low spots happen. They always do, and we always manage to climb out of them one way or another. While I would LOVE for my training to be a nice upward slope of a hill, it is not. It has peaks and valleys, but after every valley there is another peak in the distance. I just need to stay the course.

Friday is a local agility trial - all 3 dogs are entered and I have a total of ELEVEN runs! The rest of the weekend is open, since our planned trip to Florida got cancelled due to the motorhome being in the shop. This makes Florida trop cancellation #3 in the past 6 months. Luckily I was able to change my plans and regroup, but it sure is disappointing.

11 agility runs today. My leg was still hurting a bit from the muscle strain last Sunday at the field trial, but when running Pizza this morning I felt a pop and it was agony the rest of the day. My lack of speed sure didn't help matters any...what an "ugh" kind of day.

Let's see...we started with Jumpers in the morning. The course actually started with two jumps facing the in gate. Noodle took the two jumps and ran to the in gate when she heard someone (gate steward) call out her name, so she missed the third jump. I did a fix N go, go her past the gate, and then walked her off. Dolphin ran well, but got sucked in to an off course jump (he jumped the triple backwards...silly boy) and missed his weaves. Then Pizza came out and we got about 3-4 obstacles in before she left me and I ended up having to walk her out.

Only Dolphin and Pizza ran Time 2 Beat. My leg was hurting so badly so I was really far behind when Dolphin went in to the weaves, and then he pulled out. I got him back in again, but our time was just barely over the limit because I couldn't run. Pizza did a duplicate of Jumpers where she left me, ran to a bar setter, I got her back, and she left me again, so we left the ring.

FAST wasn't much better. Noodle actually did my plan perfectly and Q'ed. Neither Dolphin nor Pizza got the send (jump-jump-wrap back to jump). Standard was last, and by thi s time it was pretty hot outside, my dogs were tired, I had to wake Dolphin from a full out sleep. Both Noodle and Dolphin Q'ed, but with fairly slow times. Pizza ran the best she has run all day (typical - she always runs great on the very last run). She left me twice, but came back and we actually got to complete the entire course!

Overall it was a frustrating day. Let's just leave it at that. Frustrating enough that I didn't even take ribbons for my Q's and placements, nor did I take any photos. They were Q's, but not great Q's, and the failures kind of overshadowed the entire day. Oh well, we will live to try again next weekend...

Today was a truly hot day - it reached 82 degrees! I took Dolphin field training in the middle of the afternoon, and let me tell you - this boy needs to get used to the heat! It wiped him out pretty fast.

He was super solid on his first bird, pointing from a decent distance away. He went on point, then moved to the left and went on point again and stayed solid. I flushed and he stood, he did break on the shot, and did a messy retrieve. The bird had guts hanging out of it, so he wasn't liking it in his mouth. I don't blame him!

The breeze completely died when he was running and he ended up pointing right on top of his second bird (I should mention we have the birds in tip-up cages just in case he decided to grab). He was really nice and solid on this one. I flushed, and when the shot happened, I did tug on his collar slightly to remind him to stay, and he did. The bird was missed, so we went off in a different direction. I saw where the bird landed, so I decided to swing around later and go into the woods to find it. I probably should have quit while we were ahead, because Dolphin went on point in the woods, the bird flushed and he jumped in...didn't get the bird, but did NOT hold steady. Oops! Figures...always got to push the envelope just a little.

Today was my typical jam-packed Wednesday. Noodle and Pizza had agility class in the morning - Noodle had gone out and eaten a TON of fresh grass this morning, so halfway through the class I had to take her outside where she proceeded to yak up gobs and gobs of grass. Needless to say, she didn't run very well in class. Pizza ran OK, but was a little distracted at the beginning. We got into a flow and she did much better once we got going.

I took Dolphin and Pizza to do some field training locally. Dolphin was first. This boy is getting it! First bird he held beautifully, broke on the shot and did a very messy retrieve. It was really hot out today - mid 70's and blazing sun, he didn't seem to like all the feathers in his mouth when he was panting. The second bird was better - he was oretty solid on, other than moving around it several times while on point...not sure if he was trying to get the scent figured out or what. This time I grabbed his collar when the bird was shot, and he stayed put until I released him. He did a better retrieve this time. The best part about the day was that he came across a random loose bird in the field and slammed on point...bird was right up under his nose and he held steady! The bird got up under his nose and started walking, he still held! I flushed the bird and he stayed put. Big progress!

Pizza was amazing. Super nice LONG distance honors, and one halfway decent retrieve. Her first bird was solid, but the retrieve was not great - she stopped about 10 feet from me and that's as close as she got. The second bird was much better. Although she put it down a couple times, she did manage to bring it all the way back to me. She also found a loose random bird in the field (quite possibly the same loose bird that Dolphin found earlier). She stopped on a beautiful solid point (see photo) and never moved a muscle. I love this girl...so dang beautiful when she is working!

I should mention that Dolphin had scent work class last night and did amazing. He is really doing well at this sport. We haven't trialed in scent work since last September, but our next one is in a week and a half...can't wait to see how he does!

I should also mention that Pizza came in season today! We got home from training, and later on I noticed a little blood. WHA??? She is only 4 1/2 months from her last season, a whole month early! Meanwhile Noodle NEEDS to come in season ASAP and she is not. May and June may be a mess with all of my entries and big events planned...

Since my Florida trip got cancelled (due to the motorhome being in the shop for WEEKS), I executed "plan B". Luckily I was able to pull my entries from the trial in Florida right before it closed. The only trial still open up here was waaay up in Midland Michigan, so I convinced my training pal to enter with me and a-north we went!

Let me say that Michigan in April was COLD. It rained and stayed in the 40's so no fun hikes, but we still had a blast. Here is a recap of the two day trial:

Saturday's results
• Time 2 Beat - Well, it wasn't perfect, but thanks to the relaxed rules of T2B we did squeak out a decent Q. Dolphin was in lala land and ran past a jump (which we corrected) and also missed his weave entrance (which we also corrected), but otherwise got the course.
• Standard - Standard was pretty darn good, but missed his weave entrance. I am noticing that when the weaves are near the beginning, especially if there is a hard turn into them, Dolphin tends to miss the entrance. Ugh.
• FAST - FAST went great - the send was jump-jump-tunnel and he got it (with a little coaxing on the second jump). We ended up Q-ing and getting first place! This also finished his MXF title...yay!
• Jumpers - He had good speed in jumpers, but knocked a bar...sadness...our nemisis!

Sunday's results
• FAST - The send was tunnel out to a 2 jump serp...got it! Finished with enough points for a Q and 4th place!
• Standard - heartbreak ...Dolphin knocked the first bar! I did a fix N go, put the bar up, and he ran the rest of the course really fast and accurate. I worked his contacts, and after the teeter he knocked the next jump (knocked the wing over!). But he ran fast and motivated, so can't be too upset.
• Time 2 Beat - Time 2 beat was clean! Say what? Yes it was!
• Jumpers - Jumpers was a huge fast-running course. Dolphin came out of the tunnel at the start and knocked the next 2 jumps. He finished strong and clean and was happy, so I didn't make him go back to fix. Sometimes you have to give up the training opportunity to keep the happy attitude, and that is my #1 priority.

We had a great time, and in the end that's what counts. Finished a title, and is about halfway to his Time 2 Beat title. He is the bestest traveling partner!

It was a busy training day, just how I like it. Since Pizza is in season, Dolphin took her agility class this morning. Noodle had class first - we worked on forward sends and she was great. Noodle has wonderful obstacle commitment (usually!). Dolphin did better than I had expected. His obstacle commitment is definitely lacking, and we work on it a lot.

In the afternoon, both Dolphin and Noodle went to do some field training locally. With Dolphin, we put pigeons in launchers and worked on trying to get him to stand still on point. As soon as he shifted sideways, we launched the bird. The first two birds were definitely training exercises - he went on point pretty far from me and stood beautifully, but as I was approaching, I thin the pressure got to him and he moved sideways on point. He wasn't trying to bust the bird or jump in, he just would go off point, move to another position, and go on point again. The third bird was perfect. It was either because he figured things out from the first two birds launching when he moved, or more than likely because I was fairly close to him when he went on point, and he didn't feel the pressure or worry so much about being wrong. I am convinced this movement is due to pressure, and his worrying about not being wrong. On the plus side, he never moved on the flush or the shot...big progress! And on another plus - he is really getting the hang of the honoring thing. One time he actually stopped at a decent distance all on his own. The second time he needed my help, but I think his brain is starting to put things together.

Noodle was awesome, had an amazing long-distance honor all on her own...it was outstanding. Of course, she was in training mode and had zero adrenaline going, so we will see if that can carry over at an actual event. We worked one bird, and it was shot really messy so her retrieve was not the best. I worked her on a freshly killed bird a little later and she did a direct retrieve straight to hand, so we ended with that good note. I notice she is getting a little "hoppy" on her honor...when the other dog gets released for the retrieve she jumped forward about a foot and I had to correct her. I love her enthusiasm, but she has to also have a little self-control to go with it.

Dolphin and I had our club's scent work trial all weekend. It was a mixed bag of a few successes and failures.

On Saturday we were 1 out of 8 searches. We managed to get one Excellent Container Q...out of 24 Excellent runs Dolphin was one of only two dogs that qualified. That was great, but we bombed pretty much everything else that day. The worst was Exterior...our nemesis. We still need one more Advanced leg to get into Excellent. Not today, my friend! Dolphin found one hide on a dirty flowerbox near a tree, and proceeded to lift his leg on it! I yelled at him but it was too late...and of course my softie boy was so upset he botched the next searches.

Sunday was better. We managed to get our last Advanced exterior Q for his tile...finally! He bombed a few more searches but finished the day with two awesome Q's in Excellent Buried to finish his title - his first Excellent title! So this weekend he earned his Advanced Exterior title which completed his overall Advanced title, and his Excellent Buried. Not too bad, considering we haven't trialed since last September. And really not too bad considering the poor boy was a bit discombobulated. Did I mention that Noodle has now come in season also? Both girls are now simultaneously in season. Poor boy, he has been out of his mind.