Catie's Junior Coursing Title

It was our coldest day of the season at just 24 degrees at 6:00am. In a frosty white pre-dawn Northwest wonderland we loaded up the borzois and Honcho our silken windhound to go participate in the North West Coursing Club's annual two-day Turkey Run. Today's mission was to obtain for Catherine (Catie) the first leg of her Junior Courser title by taking part 1 of her lure coursing test. Rowan and Honcho came along today for moral support.

Lure coursing events are artificial simulations of coursing, they are designed to measure and develop the characteristics of the sighthound breeds. The hounds chase white plastic bags that are strung on 100# test line, along pulleys, around a course. The line is pulled with a machine with the speed and distance from the hounds manually operated to simulate live game, which sighthounds were developed to hunt. The purpose of the competitive lure coursing trial program is to preserve and develop the coursing skills inherent in sighthounds and to demonstrate that they can perform the functions of which they were originally bred.

The purpose of non-competitive lure coursing tests is to offer sighthound breed owners a standardized gauge to measure their hounds' coursing instinct. Catie has attended several practices with us chasing the lure in a straight line, as well as with her breeders in Canada, Greg and Lexy Hancock of Tovaritch Kennel, before coming to us last June. So, she knew what to do, Chase The Bags! Today was her first time on the lure when it changes directions, however.

We were pleasantly surprised to meet another borzoi and her family out for their JC test also. A lovely 2 year old goofy girl (yes, goofier than Catie, hard to believe but true). In our area, hardly no borzoi attend lure coursing events, so we are extremely happy to have finally met other borzoi people out to run their hounds.

After a wait that seemed like hours (oh yeah, because it WAS HOURS, plural, even though the JC Tests were ran before the trial!) in the cold, with frozen feet and ears, it was Catie's turn. Catie wasn't cold at all as she would try to launch her and us off the ground everytime the lure machine started up for the tests before us, then bark-bark-bark her pointy borzoi head off in excitement and try to pull us out onto the field.

As soon as she was released to follow the lure, she took off like a bat out of hell and only had a split second hesitation when the lure took approximately a 90 degree turn to the left about 75 yards down from the start line. She ran fabulously the entire course, and only lost the lure momentarily when it made an turn back up on itself at an extreme acute angle. If you've never seen a borzoi, or any sighthound for that matter, in a double suspended gallop at full speed, it's a sight to behold - poetry in motion.

Tomorrow morning we'll repeat today and should have her JC title by mid morning. We are so proud of our little Catie-bug!