Ferns Field Trial Forays

[Amberquest]

This was my second trial of the year at Stean, I’d gone out very quickly with Fern in the Tyne, Tees and Tweed Novice Cocker Stake at the start of July. She passed a young rabbit after about 30 yards of hunting so that was me out and on the way home.

This was the Muncaster Gundog Club Novice AV Stake and I was one of two cockers on the card. There were some familiar names on the card, including my two mates Ian Clarke and Paul Matthews (Yasker and Fusey) who’ve been brilliant with me as a new starter in terms of tips, advice and inviting me to training days.

The conditions were pretty good; it was a lot cooler than I was expecting, but still relatively humid and overcast, with only a slight breeze. Remembering what I went out for on the same ground just a few weeks ago, I knew Fern’s ground treatment would have to be thorough and that proved to be the case, with a couple of the early dogs going out for missing game.

Once we’d got the formalities out of the way, we were into the trial, Mick Huitson, with his dog which eventually got 2nd place started on the left at number 2, and was really nice to watch from the gallery. He had a few finds and a couple of retrieves, however Number 1, who’s name escapes me had a really long run. Mick’s run soon finished and the only other cocker in the stake was up next, so naturally I took an interest. It was going nicely, however it moved on the flush and he was out.

As the dogs went in, many were being eliminated for pegging, the rabbits were sat incredibly tight. This did nothing to ease my nerves. As a newcomer to the sport, I’m learning all the time and I found it unsettling that these dogs, being run by some top spaniel men were finding it difficult, and up next was little old me with a cocker who had finished a trial.

I was in at number 15 so I had quite a while before I was to run. I watched my two mates Yasker and Fusey go out and it was then that I was thinking that I’d do well to finish this trial. I watched on as number 11 went out for failure to find a rabbit that had found its way to the opening of a hole, and number 6 went out on the same retrieve. I was then backing up number 13 who went out for pegging and I thought to myself “This is going to be short and sweet”.

I was in under Martin Smee first who put me at ease and explained where my beat was and told me to take my lead off. Fern sat waiting the click of my fingers whilst the lead went into my pocket, “Click” and she was off. She was going really well, I was holding her tight to make sure she never missed anything and taking my time to make sure she covered the whole beat.

We were in thick sieves and she was flying about, suddenly she sat up. I looked, but nothing came out. I clicked her in again and she pushed a rabbit up and it was shot 20 yards or so in front by Ian Openshaw. I knew she wouldn’t have a perfect mark on it as the sieves were tall and thick. I sent her for it and she veered slightly to the left. Stopped her on the whistle and cast her right and she found it and the rabbit was soon back to hand. Relief!

I cast her off again and she hunted for a little while before sitting up again, I saw a rabbit running forward through the sieves but nothing came out. I hunted her towards where I’d last seen it but there was a hole, so I assumed it had made ground. A few more yards of hunting and that was my first run done. I was chuffed at how she’d gone, and was relieved to get through the first run!

I came back out and headed towards the gallery. Sarah my partner had come to watch, and it’s a bit of a joke between us now that I’ll never finish a trial. So I jokingly started to take my number off my arm, I saw her look up to the sky as if to say “Not again”. She was stood with Yasker and Fusey. Yasker was also stewarding, and so he had crossed me out in his book and gave me some stick when I told him I was just winding Sarah up. He was going to put me out anyway he said because he’d already scribbled over my number!

I gave Fern a drink of water and a bit of mars bar cake in preparation for her next run, which I’d overestimated in terms of how quickly I’d be back in on the other side. There were only 3 odd numbered dogs left in, and 1 of them had finished their second run. I’d barely finished my Cornish pasty before I was back in.

This time I was in under Bob Crowther who explained what he wanted to see. I cast Fern off and she was going even better than the first run. A loose rabbit was shot and she went out and picked it and brought it straight back. We carried on and she indicated again but nothing came out, there must have been something their just before. Anyway, we carried on and got to a sieve bed around an old broken building. A flush but it didn’t produce a shot, so we carried on.

At this point I could see she was starting to slow down a bit and wasn’t keeping her nose down as much, and checking back on me, but suddenly she sat up and out came a rabbit. Simon Dixon shot it 20 yards front. I thought to myself, great, all she has to do is go out and pick this and that’ll probably be me done and I’ll have finished my first trial. “Send your dog” said Bob. Cast her out, a quickly redirect and she had it, “Get in there I thought”. She didn’t run back with her normal enthusiasm and I was stood in the middle of a patch of high thick sieves. She got to within two yards of me, put the rabbit down and stood over it panting. “Pip pip pip” She didn’t move. Gutted, that was me out.

Thanked Bob who apologised, but I said there’s nothing to apologise for mate. Trudged back to the gallery and couldn’t believe it, within 2 seconds of probably finishing and she did that! Cockers!!!!

The trial finished soon after that and Jim O’Connor had won with his springer, Mick Huitson 2nd and Nick Powell and Mick Walsh both got COMs. I chatted with Martin to get some feedback on my run after he asked “What the bloody hell happened to you?” He was really helpful and complementary, and said the only thing I got knocked on was keeping her too tight, he’d have liked to see her go a bit more. That’s my fault for being worried about missing game so I can work on that, I need to be more confident in her. He’d given me an A with a slight knock for ground treatment. I spoke with Bob and he’d said much the same and an A- was probably on the cards, thoughts echoed by Simon Dixon who was one of the guns on my second run.

Simon has given me some stuff to work on, which is great. I really value his opinion; he’s a top bloke and trainer. I also need to work on the dogs’ fitness; it was evident that with a short turn around between runs she suffered a bit in a second run.

So, despite going out again, on reflection there were a lot of positives, with good comments from both judges. My next trial is on the 3rd October so I’ve a couple of weeks to iron out a few little things and get her fitness up. Hopefully I’ll manage to finish on soon!!!!

[Rothievale]

Well done! So nice that you got the feedback and actually had the confidence to ask for it

[Merlin]

Very well done and well written up, I really enjoy reading these..

[Cocker Adam]

Just read this from the first post and it all make fantastic reading thanks for taking the time to update people and good luck rooting for ya bud

[Amberquest]

On Saturday I ran in the Gamekeepers National Association Novice Cocker trial on the Pentland Estate, Nr Penicuik, just south of Edinburgh. I was in at Number 2 so the usual nerves didn’t really have chance to kick in. A quick briefing from Greg Ford the steward and Martin Smee, one of the judges, and we were right into the trial adjacent to the farm yard where we had parked our cars.

My first run was under Kelly Ward and had the pleasant task of taking a strip of 4 foot high nettles through to a fence line, approx 30 metres or so. Kelly said just do your best to get through it and see what comes out. I cast Fern off into the nettles and it was obvious she didn’t want to get her nose down, despite that she was making an effort to hunt through it with a bit of pace, but nowhere near what I know she’s capable of.

As we approached the end of the nettle bed, she flushed a number of pheasants, one of which was shot on the other side of the barbed wire fence in a patch of gorse about twenty yards away. Another was downed by the gun on the other side. Kelly told me to come forward a little and get Fern over the fence. I sent her out but she went a little out into the field, rather than going straight down the fence line. A redirect and she was into the gorse in the area where the gun had downed the bird. I left her to it and she soon appeared with the bird and delivered to hand.

We all jumped over the fence and were into some thick standing bracken. Fern was making a nice job of hunting it thoroughly and was going nicely. She soon flushed a hen pheasant, which wasn’t shot at because it flew behind some tall gorse bushes. She sat steady to the flush, and after a short hunt Kelly told me “That’ll do” and my first run was done. On walking back to the gallery, I started to realise how painful my hands were after walking through the nettles - Ouch!

The trial continued and our next run was in game crop/stubble type stuff into a headwind. I was backing up and the dog in before me was put out for moving on the flush, so I was in. We were heading towards a partridge pen, so I was expecting to come into some birds at some point. Fern evidently could smell the partridge in the pen on the pretty strong wind and needed a few “pip” reminders to stay within normal hunting range, but was going nicely.

There was soon a flush of birds, loose from between me and the other handler. One bird was shot and Steve Winspear on my left was told to try his dog on it. It made the fall but after a number of attempts nothing came out. I was told to try Fern, who again went to the mark and I left her to it, redirecting her a couple of times when she pulled towards the partridge fluttering in the pen. She failed to find anything, so Martin and Kelly walked forward to check the area. I was a bit nervous at this point, but the gun next to me said it’d hit the deck and run straight away so not to worry. No bird was found, phew!!! Unfortunately both me and Steve then had to hunt through the last bit of cover where the shot bird had landed, we were both at risk of eye wiping ourselves here! Luckily there was no bird and we were told to put our leads on as we were going back to another part of the crop to continue our runs.

We walked a long a stone wall adjacent to the field and lined out. There was a few metres of white grass before the cover started and as we set off I noticed a young poult bird clapped down in the grass. I put Fern onto it and as she went in to pick it up, I put the stop whistle in to prevent her from pegging it. I tried her again and the bird still didn’t move. This was happening literally two feet from both me and Martin, so he told me to get Fern to bring the bird in to hand. For whatever reason she wouldn’t pick it. I don’t know whether it was because I’d blown the stop whistle twice to prevent her from pegging or what.

After a lot of thinking time spent bent over his stick, Martin said he was going to have to put me out. I said I can understand why, the dog hadn’t brought me the game back. He did say, and after speaking to him again after the trial, that it was a very difficult scenario to judge, one he’s never had before and probably won’t see again. The bird itself had a bare back and “bulgy eye” as Martin put it, and wasn’t right. Never mind, another weird scenario ends a trial for me and Fern.

Only three dogs finished the trial and were awarded the following places.

1st : Fran Ardley – Golden Nectar (CSB)
2nd : Anita Jones – Episcopa Wonga
3rd : Steve Winspear – Kiltonbeck Cooper

[Judy]

That was extremely bad luck! I've found this with the Cockers, they seem to take things too literally, I've told them to leave a dead bird I was about to pick by hand and then found it difficult to get them to pick dead birds I can't reach two minutes later. Had I been handling (don't know if you'd be allowed to do this in a Spaniel Trial) I would have called her part way back then resent, seems to break the spell.

Still if the luck goes your way you know you have a brilliant dog and she will do well. Good luck for next time.

[Naj]

You'd think that with it being only a couple of feet away & obviously had something wrong with it the judge would have picked it up himself & carried on. The dog might not find such a bird to be a logical retrieve, because they're usually expected to leave birds lying next to handlers/guns because they have already been 'picked'. It was hardly a bird worth sending a dog for in any event. Bit of bad luck, there.

Naj

[Alice]

What awful luck again!! Hopefully you'll get all the weird situations out of the way soon and you can get on with getting in the awards! Thanks again for another great write-up, really appreciate them.

[Sgurr]

Yes the luck was not with you but thank you so much for the brilliant write ups you have been doing --- and the best of luck for next time!

[RAH]

Thanks so much for these posts. I am really enjoying all of these reports. Being new to it all, your updates on all the "weird" and unusual situations that you have found yourself in make for really thought-provoking reading.

I'm learning more from reading about where things can start going wrong or falling apart in your posts than I am watching the "best bits" of championship competitions on YouTube. I realise that this doesn't help you to finish trials though.

I wish you all the very best for the next trial, and here's hoping that you have run yourself out of weird. You've certainly had your fair share.