Sunday, January 10, 2010

912 miles to run Bailey for 25 minutes


California City. I had never heard of it before last year. Here in the Mojave desert, the Southern California Vizsla Club held their field trial this weekend.


I drove down Friday afternoon, arriving in the desert town of Mojave at 7pm.






We stayed at the Motel 6, next to the train tracks in town. Those trains ran every half hour and all night long. The trains had to blow their very loud horns all the way through town. Not great for sleeping.



The next morning at 6:30 we headed out into the desert to the field trial area. From Mojave, it was 32 miles north east. Out where the folks set up camp, we were 18 miles from the nearest store.
The weather was just about perfect. Bailey did really well during his brace.

Until Bailey turns two years old, he will run in Derby Stakes.

There were 11 dogs in this Open Derby. Most were professionally handled. Several were German Shorthair Pointers, a very tough breed to beat in field trials.







Bailey came in fourth and was given a very nice white ribbon which the club made up.





First, second, and third places all went to professionally handled and trained German Shorthair Pointers.






So fourth made me happy. I can compete with the pros and Bailey had a great time. He found and pointed three birds and ran great in a desert he had never seen before.


We had some"down time" before we ran Saturday morning, so Bailey and I took a little ride in the Jeep out into the desert to a hill that looked over the desert floor. We hiked up a rocky side of the hill that gave some great views of this wonderful desert area.

January is a great time of year to visit this part of the world.







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