I had a nice relaxing weekend planned in Ohio to watch my trainer run my dog in a 1 hr Open All Age trial, and to then run her myself in The weekend Amateur All Age trial. I flew in Friday and then drove to the grounds and showed up about 20 minutes before her brace. Is addled he horse up and road to the breakaway to meet my trainer. When I got there he handed me his whistle and blank pistol and told me I was running her. After a few explicit words to him, since this was a Purina All Age points trial, I belted his blank gun and rode to the line. 1 hour, and two finds later, he gave me chit and told me my dumb azz probably just won the trial. I couldn't argue since I hadn't seen any of the other braces, but I did know she laid down some huge casts and with his help scouting, always showed to the front. At one point, she took and outside line, that I tried to reign her in from, and edged the outside of a tree line showing to the front nearly 700-800 yards to the front of us. Thank god she didn't listen, because it looked great, even though it wasn't what I wanted. At the end of the day she ended up with the win, which was my first with her in an open trial. Now we have the two amateur wins required for her AFC, with only 1 point to go. I have a feeling that last point is going to kill me though, especially since I don't get to run her as much as I would to.
