Wellington, Colorado

Last weekend we headed over to Wellington, Colorado for a Field Trial. This is the same town our trainer Kenny Trott is from. Actually, some of the trial was on his grounds. It was fun to get to meet some of the people that Rett met and spent time with while training with Kenny and Marcy in Texas over the winter. That's probably one of my favorite parts about the trials is meeting so many new people with different backgrounds. It is a lot of fun. And for the most part, people are patient and great to the boys. We drove there and back different nights, which was great for the boys, and a little harder on us. But it worked out ok.

Terrible story about our hotel....we can laugh now...We (Rett would tell you it was really me and not him because he would have checked reviews) booked a hotel online and when we checked in it was pretty awful. Seriously. The worst place I've ever seen. Apparently there was a lot going on that weekend in Fort Collins; the Greeley Stampede, a huge softball tournament, the field trial, and it was also the 4th of July weeekend. So back to the hotel - there were people outside and on balconies that were incredibly scary to me. The room was supposed to be non smoking, but had very obviously been recently smoked in. On one wall there was something disgusting smeared all over. There was an air vent on the ceiling that was black and super dirty. The beds were dirty and had cigarette holes in them. The floor was awful and gross. I couldn't even believe it. I felt like I was being punked or something! And the pictures on the website must have been 30 years old! After complaining, we were told we were accidentally checked into the long term stay rooms, sincerely apologized to, and moved to another room. It was a lot better. But Rett laid down to take a nap and when he woke up he had a few red spots on his chest and back! GROSS! He complained again to the hotel management. And after calling every hotel in town, we finally found a room with a king bed that wasn't too expensive. So around 9pm we checked out of the first hotel with a full refund and into a much cleaner hotel down the road. Luckily the new hotel also had a pool for the boys. We learned that we should probably always try to stay with chains that are known. And as Rett would tell you, we learned that we should always check reviews. Because the reviews of this place were TERRIBLE and SCARY!

The trials went well. It was a double header, and Zink didn't make it through the first one. He had a no go (Rett called his name to go to the memory bird, which is the second bird shot, and Zink didn't go). He took off the second time called, but then popped (Turned to look at Rett for directions on where he should be going). For the derbies, they only do marks, which is when the dog sees the bird fall. Later, they will do blinds, which is when the dog does not see the bird planted, and he has to take directions from the handler, but when it's a mark, he should be able to remember where the bird is. Obviously he didn't see it. Rett said he was looking around instead of watching, and that's why he didn't go right off to the second bird. As soon as I saw that, I knew he'd end up popping.

The next day, he did great and ended up taking 3rd place. He now has 21 derby points. Which is great! He has started a few weird things, and we have a ton of yard work to get done, so we ended up leaving Zink with Kenny and Marcy for a month, where they'll be able to get one more trial in before we would, and we'll pick him up before the next ones we had scheduled.

The boys had a blast. The driving was the best that could be expected. And the weather was great; Hot, but great. After the hotel change, it became a great trip.

This is Rett and Zink in the fourth series of the second trial. Zink just brought back the go bird, and is getting ready to hand it off to Rett.

Here he is taking off for the memory bird.

Marcy loaned us "Lochie" for the day. The boys LOVED puppy-sitting this cute little girl! And did a pretty good job of it! Every time the poor little thing tried to fall asleep, they woke her up. I'm sure she slept GREAT that night! And it was great entertainment for the boys. Sometimes these trials are so long and hard for them. They go from 8am until whatever time they finish, between 4pm - 8pm. So it was great both ways.


And the boys with the prize loot. They were so dirty and we were leaving to drive home right after it finished, so I'd washed them down with wipes and jammies were already on while we were waiting for the results. This picture was from Rett's phone, so it's not the best, and they were looking into the sun and hating it, but they were sure excited to get a prize!