ANNOUNCING A NEW FIELD TRIAL PARADIGM

ANNOUNCING A NEW FIELD TRIAL PARADIGM

By: Keith Richardson. President, NGSPA

In mid-October The GSPCI and the NGSPA Chukar Championship collaborated and held the NGSPA Chukar Championship followed by THREE GSPCI trials: a weekend trial, followed by their first ever Chukar Regional Championship, followed by another weekend trial. It was a huge success with the NGSPA Chukar having their largest attendance in years and the Chukar Regional attracting 42 starters-possibly the largest AKC Regional Championship ever held, plus their two weekend trials were very well attended.

• Both groups collaborated to work out dates, time and place.
• The leadership worked closely to ensure seamless events.
• Some judges were shared and some participants were able to judge.
• The Grounds accommodated a range of options from a three hour continuous course, to a nicely flowing one hour loop and a challenging 30 minute loop.
• The bird contacts were incredible throughout the two weeks. More trials more birds.
• Several new participants showed up to both the NGSPA and GSPCI events and were impressed. We will likely see them again.
• One walking handler was accommodated in an amateur stake.
• People worked together, things ran smoothly for the most part, and attendees had a lot of fun.
• New concepts were tried.
  • The NGSPA event was always held in the Spring and the Fall venue proved to have better weather, more birds (many wild birds) and better cover.
  • Two pros with mixed breed strings attended all four events because both types of trials were held in one place with no moving around for two weeks. It was a very a efficient and productive use of their time.
  • The GSPCI  moved from their previous grounds to those of the NGSPA and they found them to be superior in all respects.
  • The GSPCI wanted to try a 60 minute Regional event and found that being associated with the NGSPA helped both groups have more success.
  • The GSPCI added an additional weekend trial to their normal format bookending their new Regional and found that it worked very well.

CONCLUSION

All field trials in all venues are struggling to grow, and I encourage you all to think beyond the way you have always done things. There are new ideas, new partnerships and new opportunities to grow if you rise to the challenge and seek them out. We are all in a very specialized niche and we all need each other. Set aside past differences if they have become an impediment, reach out, mend fences, and do what it takes to create a fun, challenging environment for people and dogs and growth will very possibly come your way. The days of our Dual Championships between the GSPCA and NGSPA proved we can all get along to our mutual benefit. There is a pathway forward. The Idaho Clubs just proved it.