I'm sitting at home on Saturday morning, the first day of the II. I can't believe that we're missing our second II in a row. Last year was all about kids and injury. Sweeney was coming off his ligament repair surgery and wasn't ready for 2 days of competition and the kids get out of school right before the II weekend. This year, it's money money money and kids :) . Once again, kids got out of school Friday, so it makes it hard to get away. Gas prices being upwards of $3.00/gallon would make the driving portion almost $350! I drove a motorhome from Cartersville to Taos, New Mexico then up to Colorado Springs and back for around $400 a few years ago. That's the impact of gas prices!
Another factor in not making the trip is the fields. The fields are small. We would not have run our fast Greyhound on that field at all. Whippets might have done well, but there are visual barriers all the way around the field. We just didn't think that we'd get optimum performance out of our Whippets.
Hopefully we'll get a good location, during a good part of the year. I doubt we'll miss another II. The dogs are getting older and next year will be on the east coast. There's a group in Region 8 who have secured what I hear is a very nice field in Leesburg, Virginia for the 2008 II. The sticking point now is the date since the field is available not only on the first weekend of June, but also during cooler parts of the year. Although I'm not too bothered/worried about it since my dogs are acclimated and run well in the heat, Virginia can be quite hot in June. So, I guess we'll have to wait a bit to find out where the 2008 II is.
Good luck to everyone in Minnesota this weekend. Wish I was up there with you!!
Maybe Dan will post another update tonight.
4 comments:
I didn't hear any complaints about the fields being too small, as th courses were both 1000+ yards, and we had quite a few greyhounds as well as Whippets...no injuries that we heard of in regards to too tight of turns. Actually, I don't think there were any injuries other than at the end of a Whippet course when the dog slid in and got wrapped up in the line and had a few cuts from that.
The "new" field was challenging to all the breeds, people were pleasantly surprised after all the negative publicity Farmington had gotten the last several months. It was a pretty good weekend despite the weather.
Glad to hear that everyone had a good time, but I've heard of at least one GH that's coming home w/ toe problems. Add to that, the entry on Saturday for GH was 6 and probably less on Sunday... We'll have a good GH entry in October in Oklahoma.
I am bummed though that we didn't come. We would not have run our GH's, but the Whippet boys would have had fun. So, how did your guys do?
I heard there was a photographer that got hit below the knee by a large whippet and was spun to the ground, where he finished shooting the course. Haven't been able to confirm this story, though.
The courses were fine.. I've seen worse put out on much bigger fields. The folks who put this on have been involved in this sport for a long time... longer then you or me even. They know what they're doing. They needed to protect their photographers better, though...
Al ran once on Saturday, came off with a slight hitch on her non-torn shoulder..so I pulled her.
Sunday she got a 4th in a VERY competitive stake...Less also got a 4th in a hard stake too. There were two stakes that would have been cake walks, but somehow they put all the tough dogs in with Al and Less.
Al sees a chiropractor on the 16th..I think she is fine, but being 4 now, she needs some maintenance I think. I also started all my dogs on the Solid Gold "Seameal". We're just 1 week into it, but one of my friends who runs WRA said it's great stuff for joints and muscles. We'll see, I'd like to go for rankings this year, and at LEAST get the LCM5 as we're 2/4 firsts into it already and 90 points and she just got LCM4 2 weekends ago:)
*LOL* Dan I didn't see you get hit, but man, that's gotta hurt!!! I suppose you could have stood inside those lilac bushes with a ladder and it would have been a little safer;)
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