Fall Trial briefs

And...finally catching up with the early fall trials in September, there were a few noteworthy events that I'd like to share!

Labor Day weekend was spent up at the beautiful McLeish farm in Portage Wisconsin, where the field is large, the sheep challenging and the competition strong. WWSDA sponsors this great trial. This is the place where Russell took a tumble in the ditch on his first outrun, leaving him stiff and sore for a couple of weeks after...recovering just in time to run at the Finals. The photo is Russell turning the post at the Portage trial.

Maya had a difficult time finding her sheep at this trial and needed redirects to get her to the sheep set out at 500+ yds with the rolling terrain and berms obscuring her view of the sheep. Her runs were good once she got out there, but lost enough points on the outruns to not place or get into the double lift.

The pro-novice sheep were set out at about 350 yds, really stretching the experience of Luc and Sue, but they both ran out well and lifted great. Sue had some difficulty with the lines, working well. Luc had very good lines and handled the sheep well, placing 9th out of 46 both days, bringing home small checks!

The following weekend found us at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival, running in the Crook and Whistle SDT. Now that is a very challenging trial, with sheep that test the strength and focus of both dogs and handlers. Those who were able to finish the courses were in the minority all weekend!

Maya ran very well, and handled the sheep beautifully...her handler, however, had difficulty steering the sheep into the drive gates, missing all of them on both runs. In spite of my poor handling, Maya did place 7th out of 40, bringing home a check and a few points on Saturday.

Luc ran out well on his first run, and a good fetch and drive away, but we just couldn't get the sheep near the cross drive gates, so I retired. And, then I ended up leaving early before his 2nd run, which was to be very late at the end of the trial.

Sue had two awesome runs...with just one small (and costly) problem on the first one: she crossed over in front of the sheep in a deep swail, then came up behind the hill and I never even saw her do it! She ran out well on her second run and handled those difficult sheep with the style and finesse of the good open dog she is becoming...and ended up winning the class of 48, bringing home a very nice paycheck!

Whew...that's the last of the fall trial reports...we all had a great time, with lots of successes along the way! Now, time to get to some advanced training over the winter so the pups are ready for Open and Maya is ready for double lifts and international shedding!

Chaffin SDT in Vesper, Wisconsin

Thought I'd catch up on some of the other fall trials we traveled to, and one of my favorites is the Chaffin's trial. What a wonderful trial! This photo was taken by Bev Grosse www.brushedbybev.com of me and Jim Chaffin, who hosted the trial with his wife Lola...I am accepting the award for the High Combined Overall in Open. The little noodle, Maya, did an amazing job all four days of Open, placing in every run and accumulating the most points for the 4 days of trialing! She was just brilliant, handling the nearly 600 yd outrun, feisty cheviots and challenging course with ease. I am proud and honored to partner with this wonderful and beautiful dog!

The prize for winning this award was a custom painting of the winning dog, painted by the talented Bev Grosse...how cool is that? I haven't seen the painting in person yet, but Bev finished it and sent a photo of the painting - I can hardly wait to see it in person!

Visit Bev's website to have a look at her beautiful paintings of dogs, sheep and handlers: www.brushedbybev.com

Luc and Sue also ran at this trial, and put in some very nice runs...I am very pleased with how they are maturing and handling sheep at various trials! Luc placed 2nd one day with a beautiful run! Sue settled more each day (the pups had three runs each) and the 3rd day her run was very nice, beating her brother easily! Bev took this photo of Sue working at the trial, she's a stylish worker with a great feel for her sheep.

Tennessee in the fall

Is beautiful...here's the view of the camping field with the mountains
in the background.

Water cress SDT

What a great trial! We are in eastern Tennessee and the farm overlooks
the beautiful mountains full of fall trees...gorgeous

Friday brought a warm sunny morning and all the young dog classes. Sue
and luc had one run each at this trial, and Sue had the better run
this time. She had a great outrun and good course work...and her
brother had ideas of his own, and we missed every gate..

Saturday brought cold rainy weather and Maya ran 7th in the morning.
We had an awesome run, scoring a 90 which held up all day and we won
the class of 60+ dogs!!! If that wasn't awesome enough, Russell ran
great with just a few bobbles here and there, finishing with a score
of 84 which earned him an 11th place. We had a great handler dinner
there at the farm and enjoyed the great comraderie. Maya's win also
came with a beautiful engraved whistle.

Sunday was chilly and sunny, warming up nicely by afternoon. Russell
ran first and he ran out well and lifted perfectly with a couple
bobbles on the fetch. The drive and pen were Ok but we were not able
to single from our group of a ewe and two lambs. Score of 72..nice but
out of the money. What a great weekend for the old man!

Maya ran near the end of the day going out with a great outrun and
lifting well...then it went downhill from there with our draw of a ewe
who only had running on her mind. Maya was able to stop and hold her
each time she ran but we never got a hold of her and I retired when
she bolted on the crossdrive. Oh well. Maya did a great job, giving
her all.

We all had a great weekend with several successes and an impressive
win with Maya!

Now for the long drive home...we hope to get home around 2am.