| I
have had a lifelong career with animals, starting at the tender
age of 5 with horses. My first horse show was at age 7. I rode
Hunter/Jumpers for years, and my best classes were equitation
and show hack. I then found my way into Western and did well
gaming on my Hunter, winning nearly every trophy the local club
had to offer. I took home 21 trophies in the first year. Then I
was introduced to rodeo. I rode a cutting horse (belonging to a
friend) to #9 in British Columbia in barrels. I was the first
female in the Vancouver Island Rodeo Association to compete as a
hazer in steer wrestling, enabling the Top 5 men to achieve
their rankings in the year end standings.
Finances
forced me to step back from competing the the horse arena, but I
eventually found my way into dogs and I purchased my first
German Shepherd, Amos of Andy, CDX . Buddy, as he was known, was
the smartest dog people had seen in a long time. Our very first
time out he went High in Trial over Canada's top winning Sheltie
in obedience. This was our introduction to the dog show world, a
score of 199 (out of 200), our very first weekend at a show.
Buddy finished his CD with three straight High in Class awards.
From there we went on to finish his CDX with three straight
scores and High in Class, High Combined Scores, High Overall
Aggregate, Highest Owner Handled Dog. Unfortunately, Buddy
contracted cancer at age 8. It broke my heart to lose him as he
was my constant companion. My next GSD, Beaufort's Briar
Brush, CD was a show type dog. So, I started to take handling
classes from Earlene Luke of Bellingham, Washington. Briar never
really liked to show, but he taught me what I needed to know to
get my start in the conformation ring. I went on to finish most
of the dogs at that time in the Beaufort Kennels. They were my
first true love.
In 1989 I
purchased a German Shorthaired Pointer, NMK's Prima Donna V.
Lyntone ('Tosca'), from Carol Chadwick of Northwood Mtn Kennels
in Sacramento, CA. Tosca became my
foundation bitch. I bred her to Am/Can BIS Ch. Malhaven's Pied
Piper who had previously been used only selectively at stud. The
litter of 8 produced 5 champions. 'Buck', 'Foxy', 'Sassy', and 'Ace' were US and Canadian
champions and 'Emily' in Canada, all with
specialty placements. I was then able to permanently register
the Bianca kennel name with the Canadian Kennel Club. That process requires a
breeder to breed five champions, which I was able to do in just
one litter. Tosca died in September 2004 at the age of 15. Foxy
in 2004 and Buck in 2005.
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