If it's any consolation (probably not much
) field trials are pretty similar. Simon (Caoimhe's trainer) is one of the 'big names' in trialling and there are judges that it's just not worth expecting anything under. There's always going to be an element of 'who you know' in any judging sport, I think that's just life and human nature and you have to roll with the punches. Caoimhe ran in another trial 2 or 3 days after she had her first Open win, according to Simon she ran even better in the 2nd trial than in the one she won and made the best retrieve of the day (and if he says that then it's true, he's by far the harshest critic of his dogs and will tell me if she doesn't perform at her best) but what did she get? A ticket (certificate of merit) - if she'd won she would have become a FTCh that day - but that's trialling for you, highs and lows! If nothing else it's taught me to be very pragmatic
Trialling also has the added frustrations of only having a relatively very short season in which it takes place, and you have to go into a draw for pretty much every competition you enter as obviously there's only a limited number of places (maximum of 18 in a Cocker trial) and they're always oversubscribed so even getting a run is difficult enough let alone winning - all part of the fun though