Honored

I find myself seated at my computer, in a motel room of rural Calhan, Colorado searching for words to define the experience of the past several days.  The snowstorm that blew in overnight shutting the area down is in fact a welcome respite of months of preparation, anxieties of travel and the highs and lows of this life competing with bird dogs.  The word that keeps resonating in my head is also the headline of this post.  I am honored.

I am honored that the owners of the dogs I have in my care have had faith in me and the love I have for their dogs.  That faith allowed me to bring four client dogs to the Vizsla Club of America's National Gundog Championship held at Rooster Ranch in Calhan.  As most have heard through the instant wired grapevine, we were also honored by the Judges of winning the event with Tucker - Vetelytars's Tuff as Leather.

In every event, one experiences highs and lows.  At a National level event, those highs and lows seem to mimic the terrain of this Western state with extremely high exhilarating peaks and the chasms, cliffs and falls of dissapointment.  I, along with my fellow competitors, experienced both through the four days of running.

Through those days and those moments of high and low emotion felt by all, one aspect held true and that was that even though the competition and competitors were fierce, every person I witnessed honored one another.  A "tough break - dog was looking GREAT" or very nice job you and your dog did was stretched from one to another to the next.  I have truly enjoyed my experience and though obviously winning is a special "high" which I will never forget - equal to this aspect was the opportunity to meet people from all over the country, watch them and their dogs run and share in this special moment and common bond.  

This post will be too long to recite each dog's run, so I'll post in subsequent posts of each dog's run from my perspective.