England Trip 2010

This fall we took a two week vacation to England. We started our trip in London with a few days of sightseeing. Then headed north to the Manchester area to actually meet the field trial trainers we had “met” via email or phone. It was great fun to get to know many of them better and to make new friends at the training groups and trials.

We had the fabulous opportunity to be part of training out on the moors and hills of Northern England and Scotland with several of our newly acquired friends. We attended two field trials in Scotland where the marks and blinds were located on some incredibly steep hills with very thick, tall bracken cover. The scenery and views from the training and trial grounds was spectacular! One of the most surprising things we learned is that many of the retrieves the trial dogs in England perform easily cover distances of 150 to 250 yards!

The training and trials were very educational for us. Our new understanding of what the English-trained dogs know (and don’t know) when they get to the US will be a tremendous help to Rick when training and running English dogs in our hunt tests.

Through it all there was plenty of dog talk. Visiting English field trailers, trainers and hunters allowed us the opportunity to compare tests and understand expectations. We have returned home with a renewed energy and are looking forward to even better training results with our unbeatable retrievers.


Click on each picture to enlarge.

Andrea & Rick in London
Westminster Abbey
Changing of the Guard
North England Moors
Andrea enjoying watching some training (note the painted set kind of view!)
A short break. The dogs had been practicing retrieves over the stone wall
A training day in the field
FTCh Leadburn Viceroy
Carole Clark with her dogs


Mike Rolland & Rick McConico with Mike’s dog FTCh Emmawood Drake
FTCh Emmawood Drake owned by Mike Rolland
FTCh Mediterranean Blue owned by David Latham
Phillipa Williams, Peter Bates and Levenghyl Isle of Arran now a FTCh
Rick with Nathan Laffy
and his dogs
Rick with Billy Steel Jr.& Billy Steel, Sr. Rabbit hunting in Scotland to work their young dogs. Both had Springers that hunted up the rabbits and it was the job of the retrievers to bring them in.
Winner Billy Steel Jr & Hillus Churchill. Second Place dog and handler Billy Steel Sr. with Leadburn Ace of the Lauder & Borders Trial in Scotland
Scottish Field Trial Association Winner Richard King & FTCh Garronpoint Rye of Lincswolds
The judges and finalists from the Scottish Field Trial Association field trial