The 2000s – Trials, Travails and Trubon
The 2000s – Trials, Travails and Trubon
The first decade of the new millennium saw a significant downturn in the number of handlers securing awards in field trials with their Weimaraners. The record shows just 15 handlers picking up 85 awards with 23 dogs. The transition from the heydays of the 1980s with 34 award winning handlers, most of whom were to pass the baton to a new group of owner-handlers in the 1990s began to fizzle out. Only 5 owner-handlers active in the 1990s carried on winning into the 2000s. Of these five only Liza Brown and Christine Carpenter had a track record of major accomplishment, having already won multiple awards.
Two owner-handlers accounted for 48 of the 85 field trial awards won in the 2000s. Ms Suzi Burton built on her initial success of the late 1990s and secured 37 of the 85. Dave Pilkington’s bitch Quadet Caterin (“Holly”) picked up 11 awards on the way to becoming a field trial champion, the second Weimaraner to do so after Wobrooke of Fleetapple (d) in the 1980s.
Quadet Caterin (b) (born 04/08/1999) bred by Steve and Marilyn Chant out of Brakabreeze Goshawk (d) and Quadet Asta (b), secured her first field trial award at a little over 2 years of age on 29/10/2001 at a HVS Novice stake at Launton. Judges M Wakeham and A Russell awarded her a 3rd place. Four more awards were won in Novice stakes, securing that vital 1st place to win out of Novice under judges C Wilkinson and R Day on 29th January 2003 in a WA trial at Skirbeck Farm, Benniworth, Lincolnshire. The following season saw a 2nd place at an ISCGB All-Aged trial.
It was in the 2004/05 season that Holly won the coveted Field Trial Champion accolade. Three awards in Open started in October with a 3rd place at a Dukeries (Notts) trial under judges G Card and M Canham. As 2004 drew to an end Holly won a 1st place at a WCGB Open stake on 30th December 2004 under judges PG Nixon and S Chant. Handler Dave Pilkington didn’t have time to dwell on this outstanding bitch having “a leg up” as just two days later on New Year’s Day 2005 under judges A Russell and Mrs V O’Keeffe at a GSPA trial at Little Dalby, Leicestershire, that second 1st place was secured to earn Holly Field Trial Champion status. This was a fabulous achievement for the breed, Dave and the breeders, the Chants. The sire, Brakabreeze Goshawk, owned by Chris Spree, and bred by Liza Brown, had won a 1st place in a WCGB Novice stake in 2003, and going back further into FT Ch Quadet Caterin’s pedigree you will find Steve Chants’ Tasairgid Talked About (d) which had done so well in the 1980s and 1990s and is still positioned at 3rd place in the WATFA table for dogs.
With the HPR Championship still under Kennel Club suspension, Holly, though eligible, was never able to compete in a Championship, but was only the third Weimaraner formally qualified to do so.
Holly won a 3rd in Open the very next season and a 4th the season after that, and is positioned 4th in the WATFA table for dogs on 263 points with 148 of those earned at Open level.
Suzi Burton’s 37 awards were secured by 3 bitches, Trubon Arade Tribute (21 awards), Trubon Bibe Tres (14 awards), and Trubon Chyna Treasa (Re-Imp) (2 awards, but her finer achievements fall into the next decade, the 2010s).
Trubon Arade Tribute (b), “Fenny”, was sired by Brakabreeze Goshawk out of Suzi’s Silberstern Moonlight von Trubon. Brakabreeze Goshawk, “MacDuff”, later sired FT Ch Quadet Caterin (b) discussed above. Fenny’s first field trial award was a 2nd place in Novice by the BWWGS at Ammerdown under breed specialists, judges C Wilkinson and R Jupp. A further four 2nd places were awarded, along with three 4th places and seven CoM’s before Fenny won out of Novice with a 1st place under judges F Alcock and S Eyeington at a N&SHPRFTC trial at Great Priory Farm, Braintree, Essex on 26th January 2005. Three places and two CoM’s were also achieved in All-Aged.
A litter mate to Fenny was Trubon Asko Truman (d) and was the first British bred Weimaraner to be exported to Germany and gain his VJP, HZP and VGP.
Trubon Arade Tribute was mated to accomplished German dog Alf zur Uhlenflucht and a retained bitch from this litter was Trubon Bibe Tres, “Bibe” winner of 14 field trial awards in the UK including three 2nd places, three 3rd’s, two 4th’s and five CoMs in Novice trials, and one CoM in All-Aged. In addition to these awards, Bibe competed in VJP and HZP in Germany, securing 171 points in the Weim Klub e.V. Landesgruppe Niedersachsen, Schwerinsdorf HZP on 18th August 2004.
Trubon Bren Tartuf (b) “Hana” (born 13/12/2002) and mother to Delta and sibling to Bibe was taken back as a re-home by Suzi and then competed in Germany scoring VJP 59, VJP 62, and HZP 179 in 2004, and was later to secure a “Good” grading in a UK Spring Pointing Test.
Half-sibling to Bibe out of Grafite Greystones (d) and Trubon Arade Tribute (b) was Trubon Chyna Treasa (b) (born 12/06/2006). Chyna managed to secure two awards in Novice in January 2009, but would go on to greater field success in the next decade before tragedy struck and she became blind following an illness. This indomitable bitch faced arguably her biggest challenge by overcoming this impediment and continues to lead an active life.
Suzi Burton has four dogs featured in the top 20 of the WATFA table for dogs, the three reviewed above and one further dog Trubon Delta Truffe (b) 16th on 101 points, and reviewed later. Trubon Arade Tribute (b) features at 2nd place in the WATFA table for dogs, behind FT Ch Wobrooke of Fleetapple (d), on 330 points, and has won 21 UK Field Trial Awards, second only to FT Ch Wobrooke of Fleetapple (23 awards), but ahead of her daughter Trubon Bibe Tres (b) (14 awards). Bibe is at 7th in the WATFA table for dogs on 197 points with Trubon Chyna Treasa (b) at 8th on 195 points (68 at Open level) and with 10 field trial awards.
Suzi Burton deservedly occupies top spot in the WATFA table for owner-handlers on 891 points and a total of 57 UK field trial awards, and is still going strong. The 2000’s was surely Suzi’s decade, flying the grey flag the length and breadth of the UK and abroad and securing awards for Weimaraners at trials which but for Suzi may not have had any grey representation.
However, notwithstanding the achievements of Suzi and Dave, there were 13 other handlers, some of whom won multiple awards, and some with more than one dog, in a pattern and level of success which so far has become the norm for the current decade, the 2010s.
Liza Brown and Christine Carpenter won 5 awards each including a 1st apiece in Novice trials with Brakabreeze Bravehawke (d) and Aschfahl Chrystabelle (b) respectively, and Chris Spree won 5 awards with two dogs, Brakabreeze Goshawk (d) securing a 1st in a WCGB Novice trial at Stourhead Estate, Wiltshire to add to his three CoM’s at Novice level. Brakabreeze Hawke (d), Chris Spree’s other dog and sibling to Brakabreeze Goshawk also won a Novice CoM.
The late Mrs Bernice McGee’s longhaired Weimaraner Winndue Aeneas (d) “Mace” was awarded a CoM at a HGS Novice trial at Durley in Hampshire by judges CL Church and Ms S Burton. Mace won another CoM and then a 4th in Novice. Mrs B McGee’s Aschfahl Foresters Fancy (b) also won a CoM. Bred by Mrs Christine Carpenter and in a poignant tribute to Bernice, Aschfahl Foresters Fancy was handled by Christine to a 4th place in a BWWGS Novice trial at the Hamptworth Estate on 16th October 2009.
The late Beate Dwingelo-Lutten’s Haselunne Heidi (b) won 4 Novice CoMs This bitch was out of Chris Spree’s Brakabreeze Goshawk (d) and Beate’s Silvershadow Eowyn Von Haselunne (b). Phil Ross’s Enryb House Party At Clannliath (d) won a 3rd in a BCGB Novice trial at Craig Castle, Aberdeenshire to add to his CoM obtained just a few weeks earlier in Perthshire. Still very active in the field, Enryb House Party At Clannliath (d) will go on to win 14 awards (at time of writing) to position the dog at 9th on 187 points in the WATFA table for dogs, and joint 4th in the WATFA table for total number of awards.
Martin Berry won five CoMs with two dogs, Lujarger the Limit (b) (two at All-Aged) and her son Heros Neptune (d).
Mr A Heys’s won a 4th and a CoM at Novice level with Greyman Lunar Eclipse (b) and Mrs CL Rodgers won two Novice CoM’s with Ch Sireva Royalty At Minstergate JW.
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