Victoria
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UK visitorsTomorrow I am heading to the South Island for a weeks fishing with Pauline and Jamie, breeder of Kenmillix Gamecourt aka Katie, dam of my Dionee. Once down there, we will travel and fish with an Australian fisherfriend who also happens to have Brits. We will be visiting Chris and Barry which will be really neat. So we are in for a trout and Britfest!!
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Mugi
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Hope you have a fab time.
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johnhod
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Victoria please say hi to Jamie and Pauline from Katie's brother and me.
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Victoria
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I certainly will, John!! Thank you, Sue!! It seems like such along time ago since I had a break from work so am really looking forward to it... 
Hope the weather is kind!
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Patricia
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Victoria, say Hello to Jamie and Pauline, they have had quite their share of health problems and had spoken to me about going to New Zealand.
I met Jamie when he bought Lorca's son Solo and we have kept in touch. When he had trouble selling his puppies we passed on John, David Hayes and Tony onto him. It was a good litter.
Give them my love and have a great time...
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Victoria
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I certainly will, Patricia. It is going to be fun with the three of us and the two dogs in my twin cab ute plus all our gear!!!!! I just hope I can get a bigger trout than they do!! 
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Victoria
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It was great to see you all again, Chris. Thank you!! See you again in May!
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Britmania
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It was great to meet Jamie and Pauline and to catch up with you again Victoria. As always, a Brittanyfest is something special - with plenty to talk about, even though we had only just met J & P !
Easter weekend is almost drawing to a close and was a hectic break for our household. Three local gundog clubs ran championship trials all weekend, including three Pointer & Setter trials.
To spread the load, we entered Spice and Sophie on Friday, Kip and Sophie on saturday and Spice /Sophie on Sunday.
As it turned out, the Sunday judge was not able to officiate, so Barry stepped in as replacement.That scratched Spice. Kip came into season, so was scratched as well.
Results were varied - on Friday, Spice won the trial and Sophie was called off by me - she lost her concentration and went AWOL!
On Saturday, Sophie was much improved and was rangeing well. Sheer bad luck helped her cast upwind of the dead bird and she went on to establish a point on the second homer - this meant her run was called off by the judge as the game was found out of order.
The good news was that Spice's litter brother Folly emerged as winner.His score also awarded him his 6th CC and made him up to his Field Trial Champion title.
This means that NZ FTCh Leaningrock Lairg Castle (owner Jo Arnold) is only the second FTCh Brittany in NZ - Spice being the first.
On Sunday, Folly was also unlucky with a flukey wind and found out of order. Sophie began extremely well,with very good rangeing - and put in a big cast that brought her downwind of the second homer this time! She followed her nose and again pointed the wrong homer.
So it was the same result - called off due to finding out of order.
Clearly, the grounds used for our trials have a big influence on how well our dogs work. On Friday, the course included large areas of scrubby bush which was quite high and prevented the handler from seeing the dog and keeping in touch throughout the trial. The scores were not good and it was mostly experience of both handler and dog that got most through.
Saturday's course was beside Lake Ellesmere, shorter scrubby cover and
all the competing dogs performances greatly improved.
Sunday's course was in yet another location covered with large areas of gorse and lupin bushes - too high to see over in places. Both Brittany's made the same mistake.
In May, a Pointer & Setter seminar is being run in Central Otago. I am taking Sophie and Barry is one of the course instructors. We will be having a theory session with questions and answers - (boy, will I have plenty of questions) and a practical session where each dog and handler will be mentored through the course.
Central Otago is such a spectacular place, so it will be awesome to finally have a chance to run Sophie in country that is the "home" of the Brittany in NZ.
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Victoria
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Fantastic news about Folly...Jo will be delighted...he really deserves the title as he has been a great campaigner and representative for the breed.
Congratulations to Spice too. 
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doganjo
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Hi Chris, that's a great report, thanks.
I wasn't quite sure what 'out of order' meant until I started to think logically - it means just that - bird pointed in the wrong order. We don't have that here, as our trials are run on free range live game. So the dog points wat it comes across, flushes on command and the bird is then shot and retrieved. (hopefully if all goes to plan)
Pleased to hear about Folly - I rather think he has been mis-named - he isn't a 'folly' at all! :-)
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Britmania
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You have guessed right Annie, "out of order" means that the dog has found the birds in the incorrect order.
Our courses are a minimum 350 metres long and the dog is expected to range the ground (in accordance with the wind) until it finds the first homer pigeon hidden in a trap. It points the homer and is steady to shot and the flight of the bird. It then continues down the course until it finds the planted dead bird, which it retrieves to the handler.
The dog is then asked to continue down the course until it finds the second homer in the trap. It is expected to remain steady to the shot being fired and the flight of the released bird.
The trial is finished when the judge thanks you.
We do also have live game trials, but for the pointer & setter class they are held in the North Island only, because we in the South Island do not have the gamebird populations or the conditions suitable for such trials.
We are also restricted by government legislation which prevents the shooting of game outside licenced hunting regulations.
In other words, we have to hold simulated hunting trials or nothing at all!
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doganjo
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Yes, we are restricted to certain months for shooting game too, depending on the particular species. Except rabbit and pigeon which can be taken any time.
By the way, did you get a call from Wally Grieg about Brittany ornaments and stuff? I got a call from him a few weeks ago totally out of the blue - I haven't a clue how he got my mobile number, but he said he knows you so I told him to get in touch and you might be able to help him. he doesn't use a computer so Ebay was no use. I think he said eh is about 70 and is involved in racing cars. Seemed to know a lot of very well known folk in teh UK.
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Britmania
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Thats interesting.......don't know the name and have not been contacted at all - is he a UK person?
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doganjo
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No, he's on South Island too - he certainly knew you two, but not Victoria, and said he had your contact details too, it was a while ago now so I had expected him to be in touch by now. He was looking particularly fro a Brittany sculpture.
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Britmania
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This is really weird ..... the only "Wally" we know has golden retrievers and is in the Southern Golden retriever Club - I don't know a reason why he would be asking about Brittany's. He hasn't been in contact with us for ages and I dont think he is as old as the person you mentioned.
Why on earth would someone contact you by mobile phone Annie, if they know us and have our contact details??
Curiouser and curiouser!!
Sophie started her season today, so I just scraped in running her in the trials last weekend - it probably explains why she was a bit cranky too!!!
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