Test 1 - Land Triple
Saturday, in the picturesque town of Balmoral, Manitoba, at the Balmoral Community Hall saw fellowship renewed at the 2004 National Banquet. There was a delicious country style turkey dinner…yes, complete with cabbage rolls, viewing of wonderful gifts and products donated by many supporters. Foremost was the product and cash donations by the major sponsors, Iams, Official Dog Food Sponsor and Purina, Dogs Afield, Cabelas, and Tri-tronics. After National business, auctioneer Norm Elder displayed unknown talents with a rousing Calcutta of the 74 dogs entered. That number would dwindle to 70 by Sunday morning after scratches. When handlers were introduced they were given jackets, donated by Iams, numbered handlers caps donated by Purina and handlers bibs donated by Tri-tronics. Chief Marshall Kevin Howarth and Chairman Larry Cleven promised a good national after helping judges with set-up. From the Eastern Zone, Eloi Levasseur, from Southern Ontario, Peter Mottola and Western, Gord Pettit. The Hall cleared quickly after the Calcutta as handlers headed for a restful? night before the next day’s start.
Early Sunday morning, an overcast sky and slight SSE breeze greeted triallers at the Manitoba Gun Dog Associations grounds 20 miles north of Balmoral.
The first test, a land triple, was run from a road, NW into an open, recently mowed grassy field, dotted with many small (two to three foot) willow bushes directly in front of the line, on the way to all three birds. Gun #1, 164 yards at center was retired. Gun #2, left at 118 yards, and the go-bird right at 92 yards. After picking up the last bird, the team went into a holding blind while a bird was planted for Test #2, a 178 yard land blind run on the backside of the go-bird gunners. This bird was received on an honor mat, to the left of the running mat.
Tony Bartosh, a Life member of MGDA and his dog Win-toba’s Midnight Magic ran honorary test dog. Larry Baker with Ottercreeks Gryphon and Gail Komadoski with FTCH Win-toba’s Twist of Fate ran test dogs…both dogs showing handlers some of the pitfalls of the tests.
Dog #1 started the 2004 National at 8:00 a.m. The small bushes in front of the line had a definite influence on where the dogs ran…handlers were heard to comment on “Those silly bushes”. The most difficult bird was the retired gun. The dogs wanted to punch through a slot directly right of the gun station and got hung up behind the gunners. There were handles on this bird. Overall the work was choppy to reasonable, with some good performances. The tests were halted at noon for a short period while some lightning passed by…but no rain. The afternoon was sunny and hot and the wind picked up some, gusting 40 to 60 kph…this had not much affect on the tests as there was a row of trees just south of the line acting as a wind-break. However, work on the retired gun became a little more consistent but the blind remain challenging botht o get the initial line and to complete the ending under control.
The last dog ran about 6:40pm, The gorgeous bartenders (that cost them) had a brisk business as everybody waited for call-backs, Callbacks came at 8:50pm pm with all dogs back except number 26. Note dog 71 was scratched and dogs 2, 19, 30, and 64 were no-shows.
