On Wednesday September 21, 2016 Gambler competed in the American Chesapeake Club Field Trial Specialty. This stake would be the amateur stake that he ran. He ran the open and the qual on Tuesday. If you missed those runs you can read about the open here and the qual here.

Field trials come in various grades including Open, Amateur, Sanctioned and non-sanctioned. An Open field trial permits entry from any handler or trainer while an Amateur trial only permits non-professional handlers/trainers. ~ Wikipedia

My chicken scratching.

Gambler in the holding blind waiting to go to the line. He was being his usual clown self as you can see.

Heading to the line.

Watching the flyer go down.

And he’s off.

Returning with the bird.

Gambler did great with the flyer and the second bird down. He had a pretty straight line out to each with no hunt. The first bird down which was a retired gun he had a great line then he got off a bit so John handled him to the mark. There were a number of dogs that were being handled to that mark that were running way off in la la land the only saving grace was that John handled Gambler right away. He then got called back to the second series which was a land blind where he had to run between the first and the second marks.

There were hay bales in the field that were near the blind. One hay bale sucked Gambler in and John couldn’t get him back on line like he wanted him to. Gambler thought the bird was hid by the bale (which it is when we practice at home) so it was hard for him. He did get the blind and bring it back to John but it wasn’t good enough to be called back to the next series. I was still happy with their performance.

Next up will be Guilty and the puppy stake.