OK, my friend Jean sent this.  I felt like I was in some sort of awards ceremony speech.  Jean's program is different than mine, but I have a lot of respect for what she's doing.  Here's the story, when I got the message I was starting to woo Amanda.

----- Original Message -----
From: DesertRoseKennel
To: 'Todd Chrisman'
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 11:17 PM

I'm still in shock. Blair just called and said Willow won her third amateur gundog major today in NM at the CNMBC trial! That four point major actually gives her 13 points towards her AFC.  

She entered her FIRST broke dog stake in February of this year, and finished in a total of four weekends. I don't even know what to say... 

This has been such an unbelievable ride with her. We bred her, birthed her, raised her, almost lost her to a tangle with a car when she was 8 months old, trained her and handled her ourselves. I KNEW she was special when she was 5 weeks old and I threw out a frozen quail on the concrete in front of her. This was the first bird she had ever seen and she was too little to pick it up, so she grabbed its little frozen foot and dragged it back to my feet, looked up at me and I swear to God she SMILED! I knew she was staying then. 

It's even more amazing to me that she came from our very first litter as breeders and we didn't even go into that breeding with the mindset of producing competitive pups. We intended to breed and raise personal gundogs. We didn't get bitten by the competition bug until after she and her siblings demonstrated that potential. 

We would have NEVER come this far without a lot of help, advice and support from many folks. No matter what I do, I know I will forget some of them, but here goes: 

Our friend Tom Clement, who convinced us to buy her mother after hunting over her brother in Utah and Arizona. He really started the whole thing. 

There are so many people in the Arizona Pointing Dog Club to thank. They taught us the love of competition and gave advice and support along the way - Joe Felish, Gary and Sandy Pigg, Jack Mitchell, Carey Powell, Scott Montini, Jack Herchold, Andy Welch, and so many others I know I'm forgetting. 

A special thanks to our very good friends Martin and Julie Maresh - and also a congratulations to them for winning open gun dog yesterday and getting that all-elusive major Brittany win! - for all your support and encouragement. I'll be crossing fingers, toes, and anything else I can think of for you when it's time for the Brit nationals! 

To Chad and Nicole Connor - and congratulations to them for two great second placements with Jake this weekend (and puppy placements too!)! Jack Mitchell, the Mareshes and the Connors have rounded out our own training group of amateur greenhorns for years and the proof is in the placements! 

Another enormous thanks to Al Maher and his girl Heidi! For proving that a newbie can and will succeed in this sport, and providing inspiration and support all along. A true test of a friend is one that is almost more excited when YOU win that when he does himself. 

Cathy Reifschneider is another one of those friends that falls in that rare category of always unselfishly celebrating a friend's success as much as she does her own (Congrats on your first points on Tess!).  

To Dr. Stan Howard, who saved Willow's life and reconstructed her foot after the car accident. He never believed she'd use that foot again - but his skills proved him wrong! 

To Dan and Doris Schoenfelder - especially Doris who "called" Willow's potential the first time she judged her at age 15 months. 

To Terry Chandler - for his sage advice on getting a big-running to stand birds for an eternity - your wisdom was put to good use! 

To Todd Chrisman of Marshfield Kennel for believing relative newcomers could produce quality dogs and excel in this sport. 

And to so many others out there that I know I am forgetting - we would not be celebrating this success if we had done it all alone.

Best regards,

Blair and Jean Holzer