Tripp and I traveled the 10 hours to Baker, Montana over the Labor Day weekend to compete in the NGSPA Sharptail Championship and more specifically the Amateur Championship. Weather extremes were in play and we went from hot and clear to cool and rainy. Too rainy because the trial committee wisely shut the trial down for 1 1/2 days for safety reasons.
We ran the last brace of the morning after the shutdown, in cool and sunny conditions. Perfect field trial weather!
Tripp had 5 finds nicely spaced throughout the hour and ran a large shooting dog race. His bird work was fantastic and he finished the hour very strong. It was nice to hear the compliments from the gallery and certainly was hoping to get a "piece of it" knowing full well that there were many high quality dogs running in the stake.
Since the weather pushed the trial back I had to leave right after Tripp's run to get back to Dogs Unlimited for the start of a very busy week. The next day at work we received the good news from trial chairman, Tom Davis, that the judges liked what they saw in Tripp and awarded him a very deserving first place.
As always there are many people to thank - Keith Bryant for scouting him when he needed it, the judges of course, Josh Nieman for putting all the hard work into making Tripp the dog he is, Tom Davis and RJ Marquart for putting on the trial and everyone who decided to make the drive all the way to Montana to enter the trial!