Minnesota owned GSP wins NGSPA National Championship

[gspman]

For those few of you who are into horseback field trials you may be interested to know that NFC Willows on the Spot has won the NGSPA All-Age National championship last week. This is Spot's second National Championship win.

[BJB]

Phone rang it was JBL II, his owner, & as he put it, "I had to call you. You know how tough it is to win here (Booneville). We gotta get you back in the game. I gotta go in for dinner now but we we will talk more."

Rumor has it that "Spot" should have won last year but my old buddy "Digger" withheld on the gounds of not an all-age job being done on the ground.

Sure wish Spot was shooting good shots.

gspman...were you into the game 11 or so years ago when I was running my JJ in AA and Tiffany's Warf in GD?

[gspman]

Sounded like last year they couldn't show Spot when time was called or he might have won it. Anyway no I've never been an active field trialer. Phil Mathiowetz was my mentor and I ran a dog in few trials about 15 yrs ago with him but never got into it. Too much cost/not enough time. I just love field trials and trial dogs though. Went to the walking trial at Kelly Farms last year. That was fun.

Is Spot sterile? If so that's a shame. Sounds like he is a really nice dog.

[BJB]

That's what John told me. He was found on point 20 min after time was called. In FDSB you used to get 1/3 of the stakes heat to show your dog. They found Spot 20 min later buried on a limb find. Steiger had left. A-hole. If you want to reward what all-age is all about you need to place dogs that do that. All-Age is about limb finds, it is not just roaring around. If you know Crow -Hassen I was running a Pointer in a local NW Field Assn. all-age stake. She had 1 find but couldn't show her heading to the parking lot as we came around the big center grove(this was when we had more ground to use) and my scout (Scotty Jordan)went around the course again and found he pointing in the pines & was able to be heard calling point. Beautiful find. Wingard came back and after clean bird work (Maggie NEVER broke in a trial EVER)said to Chuck as we were riding in "Was that enough all-age for you?" She needed an owner w/ the $$$$ to put her w/ a Downs or Rayl. A true prairie all-age. It still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck thinking of some of the times I had mostly hunting chickens with her. A monster gyp.

Spot went down w/ heatstroke a couple of times. John has 2 1/2 straws of frozen semen and his brother and someone else (Gary P.?) have a littermates. I believe this is Art & Robby Creaney Antrim type blood w/ Rusty and also some of Ruth Blanks stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to get me into a pup. My wife and I have kind of agreed that if I either the young male I have in my kennel works out or I "get" one that "has it" and I am then retired that working dogs again will NOT be grounds for divorce. I'm not going to "chase" after trying to have good dogs. Good ones are born, not made by a trainer.

Every thing I have is linebred tight Jigs White Smoke. I liked those tough hard footed semi- outlaws that Donnie Paltani had.

I sure knew Phil. I remember when he was hanging around my friend Doc Baillie & then Merkel when Doc quit.

Trialing is fun but expensive and tough on friendships. A game that is that competitive and still subjective in judging...

[gspman]

Interesting stuff. I'd sure take a Spot pup if I had the opportunity and the timing was right. Might be too much dog for me though. That's too bad Spot had heat stroke. I met Dr. Baillie once, he was a nice man. Met Mr. Merkel too at Crow Hassan. He was an interesting character. I remember in the puppy stake his pup got lost and mine got around and took the blue ribbon. That was a fun day. I can remember being in the parking area and seeing a white blur at the break away. I said what the he77 was that, and someone said that's one of Merkel's dogs. That dog ran like it was shot out of a cannon.

My current dog has Jigs White Smoke in there 4 times with Antrim's Wayside Willie, Rusty, Clown, PJ Wildfire and some Wrenegade stuff in there too. She's a fun dog to hunt with.

[FCspringer]

Well tell him congrats. I wish to win one some day in ESS trials. My dogs father,G father,GG Grandfather, & GGG Grandfather all won a national, 4 generations in a row. Man would I love to be the 5th. He has potential he finished 6th in the nation and 2nd in the mid west in points in puppy stakes only running fall trials.

A guy at our club won a National a couple years ago and was the first MN bred ESS to ever win a National too that was cool. We have a ton of fun with the trials and training too and it is cool to see the best being brought out in the dogs.

[gspman]

Nice! Your dog has quite a lineage to follow and sounds like he's a performer in his own right. I love trial dogs. Saw a brace of trial spaniels for a few minutes once at the Game Fair years ago. I loved how they windshield wiped the field at top speed. It was quite a sight.

[BJB]

FCspringer; nice & congratulations. Trialing is fun but the expense of horseback poiner trials can really dig deep. I loved the training of trial dogs more than the actual trials. Trials there is a lot of watching and waiting for the amount of time you spend doing.

I'm set to retire later this year. If I spend the fall in ND vs at the cabin on ML that will be indicative.

[FCspringer]

Yea it sounds a bit more expensive then our trials. Well for one the Horse thing? do you guy's train that way? or are they at the trials for you. Odie is headed for ILL. today for a run out there with a friend of mine, I am with the wife for a while to get through a cancer surgery at the u here, but hope to be able to go to the three MN trials coming up in a few weeks. At least hes having fun. I have wanted to watch one on horse back too it sound neat.Right now I have dogs all over, one in Blue Earth, one in Alex and one headed for ILL. HA, it will be nice to be back with the whole family in a week or so. The hospital food sucks.

[gspman]

Training is done both on and off horseback. It's fun. Most trialers have their own horses. Having a good horse can really help you show your dog well. There are some subtle things you can do on a good horse to show your dog better. Not to mention a bad horse can severely injure or kill you.

If I had the dough and the time I'd be fully immersed in horseback trialing. I love horseback trials. Hope everything works out with the cancer surgery.

[FCspringer]

Thanks, I want to come and watch one of those some time. Everything went great at the hospital and should be going home tomorrow. Just got word that Odie got a win today in ILL. so that was some more nice news. Can't wait to see the Hardware. Do you hold any of those in MN ever? I would like to come and see it. Ken

[gspman]

FCSpringer congats on the win. What kind of stake was your dog in? Glad things went okay at the hospital. There are several horseback and walking field trials in the spring in MN many are at Cross Hassan park by Rogers and many walking trials are at Kelley Farms in Hugo. Go to the AKC site and look under pointing dog events in MN and it should list them all including hunt tests.

Some horseback trials have wranglers there and you can rent a horse to ride the braces.

[Cap'n]

Just joined so I'm a little late with this post. Re; JBL, four littermates were retained in the family. John has Spot & one virgin, intact female. One brother has an intact male, Harley, slightly larger than Spot and I have Harley's only female get. I also have a female littermate of Spot, recently bred (first time breeding) to a Rusty grandson. If she takes, pups would be expected May 2nd. The stud comes from field trial stock & has 5 HoF dogs, two, three and four generations back including Jig's White Smoke (2x), Dixieland's Rusty, Quailrun's Roxy Roller (2x), Sundance Gypsy Lee & Brown L. You'd have to check with John about any breeding plans he may have.