Saturday, September 5, 2009

Saturday, September 5, 2009

A cool morning with heavy dew. We loaded up 7 horses in the old grey trailor. We're going south to the old Hitchcock land and run some dogs. The crew was ready and the last day for some. Dave & Vickie & Ed are leaving on Sunday morning, heading west.

Roading:

· We packed up the gear for roading as we've completed using it for this summer camp. Linda came back a couple of weeks into camp and put the dogs into great condition.

Hills:

· Erin & Shauna – well this was it – we've waited a long time to see a brace this nice as a team. A field we normally find lots of birds in only produced one contact and that wasn't good but the races for these two was awesome. They cast off heading west over some mowed land and took the left hand cut edge to get front. We dropped the gate and both dogs hit to the left hills and went with us – Erin in no time was 2 hills ahead and flowing to the front. Shauna showing outstanding speed and reach. The entire time down (52 min) these 2 were constantly front and reaching and rarely near each other. At 42 Shauna got into a covey of chickens and had to be corrected. Erin near the area but not part of the infraction. They were sent front with the trailers near by – they blew off the trailers and went well to the south showing no desire to slow down. Not since the brace of Boomer/Rita many years ago have we had such an awesome shooting dog brace.

· Bart & Rio – big booming race with dogs taking the country all in – At least 4 grouse contacts for Rio and Bart had birds also but not as well defined. Both are derby dogs and they rolled with Rio being the bigger in size and range today . These young dogs kept us sitting high in the saddle for the entire 40 min. Young dogs with a future.

· Galt & Sorrel – Bob handled Galt and he gave us about 18 min. of pure all age moves – awesome and huge – in the middle he hit a flat spot but then opened up again in the meadow. Going around the pond he was found standing with great style, Bob dismounted and went into flush as a single quail left the area – Galt chased but couldn't catch it and came back to the area – this time he stuck the covey and had a big chase after Bob flushed. He went to camp and took the fence behind camp to the west. I got out the ATV and he was rolling along – stuck birds from last night and it just wound him up more. 40+ min. then 15 to catch him. Sorrel on the other hand was a brat – started strong and got into a scent trail – probably of deer. Stan got on the high hill and saw sorrel far to the south on the trail of 6 mule deer. We didn't see him even after sending 2 trucks down to look for him – 2+ hours later he was found in camp standing off Bart – the dogs hadn't even barked – they had enough of his antics for one day. Deer aren't Sorrel's strong suit.

This was our last day on the hills. Tomorrow will be birdwork and packing up. We've got our travel plans arranged.

Vickie made a wonderful meatloaf dinner with great beans and salad. We did a wine tasting test and found some great wines. Roger visited for a bit but it was a quiet evening otherwise. Time to hit the road.