Life Moves Pretty Fast

Ferris Bueller: "Live moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it."

That quote seems to be the story of our life this summer. Last weekend our coursing club had three days of events - a lure operating seminar, Junior Courser tests, and a lure coursing trial. Across the street from the coursing field was an AKC conformation show where we entered Toby in two shows. We also had a BBQ and party at our home Saturday night, and had a house guest for 4 days.

The weather was extremely hot and humid - almost 100 degrees, and sweltering. I have the sunburn to prove it, too....!

This weekend was the last chance we had to qualify Rowan for the AKC National Lure Coursing Championships to be held here in September. She only needs one more point, but unfortunately she won't qualify -- but not because she tried and didn't make it. With the soaring temperature and the course conditions, we scratched her from the event - it was just too dang hot and better to not risk an injury than otherwise. I suspect we'll have our hands full at the NLCC working anyhow and wouldn't have time to care properly for a hound we'd have entered.

Both Rowan and Catie are at the end their heat cycles, thus poor Toby has not been eating since he's got OTHER things on his mind, and he's lost weight. We considered not showing him this weekend since he doesn't look his best, but decided almost at the last minute that we'd do it just for practice. I'd pretend that we were in handling class, and not expecting to win anything - just have fun and practice, since our Specialty is this coming weekend.

Lo and behold, the lad took Best of Breed on Saturday for 2 points, and Best of Winners on Sunday for 1 point! So, in the absolute hottest part of the hottest day, Toby and I got to go run around the Group ring, which almost killed me from heatstroke, but was fun nevertheless. He's such a good boy! Win photo coming soon.

The highlight of our weekend was hosting the judge for our lure coursing tests and trial -- Gary Runyan of Runyan Borzoi. It was a pleasure to have such an interesting person here for four days and we're very happy to have made a new friend. Thanks Gary for putting up with our humble abode and our dogs - they loved having your company too. Kisses from Catie.

Lure Coursing can be Dangerous

Yesterday I returned home from my three week island retreat, house-sitting 11 borzois. The dogs were great and the time passed quickly. I left and drove straight to a lure coursing trial, where I met Rich and our three borzois - Toby, Catie and Rowan. Catie and Rowan now both have their Senior Courser AKC titles as well. Toby ran beautifully and was pure poetry in motion, however we didn't get photos of him running, unfortunately. Toby now has his Junior Courser title, too. Here's a photo of both girls running this weekend:




Now for the dangerous part of lure coursing.


Saturday I had volunteered to field clerk, which means, after every few courses, you run across the field to the judges area, retrieve the score sheets, and bring them back to the Field Secretary's table. Since I had just returned from the Island, I had my bicycle with me. After a few times hoofing it across the field and back, I discovered that I could just ride my bike out and back, much faster and it worked great!

Sunday morning, when we arrived, I walked across the field that was slick with dew to retrieve my bike. Shortly after climbing on and starting to pedal, the ground came up and smacked me in the face. At first I thought I'd broken my nose, then realized my back, neck and shoulders hurt like hell. As I rolled off my bicycle that I somehow landed on top of, Rich saw me and came running. My left shoulder was bruised, down my chest and my left breast (handlebars I think), my cheek and nose were bruised but thankfully not broken, my thigh, knee, and calf had huge bruises and I mildly sprained my ankle. Oh, and knocked a crown loose on a tooth I later discovered. I think I suffered a mild concussion since I had a headache for 8 days and was very sleepy for 2-3 days after! Fortunately a doctor was on site and checked me out as more or less OK.

Then, later in the day, as Rich was retrieving Toby after his run, he slipped and fell on the start line and twisted his arm/elbow severely too. We decided that neither of us earned OUR JC's that weekend, lure coursing can be dangerous after all.

New Member of the Pack -- Toby

We are pleased to announce and introduce the newest member of our pack -- Zabava Tabasco, aka "Toby" (or Tabasitch, as we also affectionately call him, just like his first family did):

Toby is a gorgeous, structurally sound, sweet and affectionate 2 year old male Borzoi who we'll co-own with Irina and Kristina Terra of Zabava Borzoi on Camano Island here in Washington State.
Although we don't have a private beach to offer Toby here at Winterfell, we do have nice wooded property with trails and squirrels to chase. We are in love with him already, he is fitting into our routines just great.
Watch for Toby in the show ring and on the coursing field soon!

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!