Spirit goes BOB at BGCC in Columbia, KY

Congratulations to Spirit on her Best of Breed win!
Last weekend, we packed up the van and Spirit, Morgan, Mike and I headed over to Columbia, Kentucky for a long weekend of AKC Lure Coursing with the Blue Grass Coursing Club.
We had a great time despite the heat and the long drive. The Curry farm was beautiful and the competition was great.
After a 5 week lay-off to rest a toe injury, Spirit had a great time. She ran Saturday with no problems to her toe! Yeah! After a warm-up on Saturday, she followed it up on Sunday with a Best of Breed win over 50 other Whippets!
The best news was the long weekend didn't seem to bother her toe at all! As always, she is looking forward to the next trial! Thanks to Donna for all her help and to Mike for these great photos!
Okay Spirit! How do you get into that position?! (above)
Boy this is fun!!! (below)
Deana

NEW AKC Field Champion "Spirit"

Introducing:
New AKC Field Champion
FC Cali N TNTs Spirit Of The Wild of Nitro FCh SC

We attended the AKC trial in Leesburg, VA this past weekend. We had a great time, the weather was nice on Saturday, but turned rainy on Sunday. It was a good turn out, esp. for whippets - with a field of 20 open, 9 specials and 3 vets on Saturday and 13 open, 13 specials and 2 vets on Sunday. The competition was tough. Despite that, Spirit had a great day, going 1st in the open stake on Saturday - earning her her Field Championship title! On Sunday, she was moved up to the specials stake and went 2nd - earning her first LCX points!!
Way to go Spirit! As always, you make me proud and are giving me the time of my life! I am glad you are having fun!
Thanks to Mike for this photo of Spirit!

Deana

New accomplishments keep coming!

We just found out tonight that as of April 28th, not only is Spirit currently the

#1 Whippet in AKC Lure Coursing,
she is also the
#1 Sighthound in AKC Lure Coursing!

We are thrilled and shocked at this news. What an exciting time for us here - for as long as this lasts at least :)

Deana

Introducing NEW ASFA FIELD CHAMPION

Cali N TNTs Spirit of the Wild of Nitro FCh SC
"Spirit"

Congratulations!

to Spirit for finishing her ASFA field championship at MAHA's Lure Coursing Trial in Reidsville, NC today! Thank you to judges Sandra Moore and Jim Anthony for her first placement wins this weekend!
Thanks to Donna, Robin and Dora for this wonderful girl.
Also thanks to Mike for taking her.

Deana, happy and proud as always.

Spirit wins BOB at 2009 AWC National Specialty

Spirit wins BOB
at the American Whippet Club's
National Specialty AKC Lure Coursing trial

in Atlanta, GA, April 4th, 2009
This young (only 17 months old) girl never ceases to amaze me and made my first AWC National event a memorable one for sure.

On Saturday, the field consisted of 110 dogs (4 stakes of Open whippets (78 total), 1 large stake of Special whippets (26 dogs) and 1 stake of veteran whippets (6 dogs)). The course was a bit more challenging than normal for us, it was about 840 yards long and consisted of rolling hills.
As the day started, Spirit ran well and ended up winning her open stake (Yeah!) for her first Major win (5pts.)! I was so exited, I was in tears. This the first time I have had a dog go first in an AKC trial, so I was trilled! I knew that meant she qualified to run for BOB but at that moment I was so excited about the major win I remember saying to my husband Mike, "I am so happy for this first place, I don't care what she does from here on today, I just want her to have fun running!".
Well, run she did.
I must admit, her third run of the day, the semi-final run, brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't have asked any more out of this special girl in that run and in my mind I will always remember it as perfection. After a short wait I was told she won her course and qualified for the last run-off, the other winner was "Roger", a 6 year old male from the specials stake. I will admit I was a bit worried about the last and final run. She had already run 3 long, hard runs, and as a young girl I had not pushed her this hard yet. Spirit, however, never seemed to have any doubts at all. As they yelled "Tally-Ho" she bolted out of my arms as if she hadn't even run yet that day, took control of the course and finished strong!!
As expected, they kept me waiting for the final results, but once announced I almost couldn't believe they called her name - "Spirit" - as the winner!

Thanks to Donna and Larry Richards, Robin and Scott Horner, and Dora McDonald for this wonderful girl! Thanks to judges Ian Davies and Katie Kaltenborn for noticing my special girl. Thanks to Roger (the other semi-finalist) and all the other whippets who participated in the trial for wonderful competition! Thanks to all the wonderful people that I meet this weekend while coursing, especially David Howton for all of his hard work! And finally, thanks to Mike for all his help, support and of course these photos!

These first few photos of Spirit are taken by Mike on Saturday:

Spirit after her final run wearing her BOB winning collar made by Gail Boyd:
Spirit and Deana in the Hilton Hotel later in the week:
Deana, Robin, Scott, and 4 littermates (Spirit, Missy, Flyer and Double Live) - all 4 littermates placed on both Saturday and Sunday! Way to go pups!
Deana and Spirit in the confirmation ring on Thursday:
Spirit behaved well in the ring and overall showed well for me.


Great job Spirit! We are proud of you as always!!!!
Deana

Spirit Ranked #1 - for the time being that is!

Another Cali Whippet first!

As of March 20th, 2009, Spirit is ranked #1 in AKC Lure Coursing!

I am so proud of this little red girl! It has been a lot of fun to see her ranked #1 for as long as it last! LOL She is still a young girl and is just out having a great time!

Nationals are this coming weekend, we are very excited to participate in this large event. I can't wait to see if she will do anything there.
Wish her luck! We will keep all informed of the results!

Spirit Shows in Raleigh, NC

Spirit had a good time this past weekend. She was entered two days in the Raleigh circuit and overall did good. She showed better on Thursday than on Saturday. I think all the noise on Saturday made her a bit nervous. Hopefully this will be good experience prior to the Nationals in a few weeks.
Thanks to Mike for some great photos of Spirit.



Deana

Spirit places Second on Sunday

AKC Lure Coursing Trial in Williamsburg, VA (SHOT)

Sunday was a new day, however, it was the same story as Saturday. It was cold and wet, but the dogs still had a great time! After her two runs, Spirit took 2nd place (out of 18 open dogs!) - no runoffs needed.
Her current total for Bowen pts. as of today "52" and 15 singles towards her Championship - Now she just needs those elusive Major wins! I am being patient, I know they will come someday.

Way to go Spirit! Another successful day, lots of fun and no injuries!


Deana

Spirit places 3rd

AKC Lure Coursing Trial in Williamsburg, VA (SHOT)

It was cold and wet, like a few weeks ago, however, this time Morgan and I joined Spirit.
Spirit ran hard, as always. She had 2 strong runs and won a 3/4/5 run-off to earn 3rd place out of 13 dogs.

Way to go Spirit! Another successful day, fun and no injuries!
We will see what tomorrow holds in store.
Deana