Well, it was overcast, chilly and cool for most of today. Like a foolish person, I listened to the weather report and packed for 80 degrees so I had to wear everything that I had that had warmth...which was one long sleeve shirt, one vest and one sweat coat. Kathleen gave me a blanket to wrap my legs around so I stayed warm for most of the day. It there was a coffee stand at this trial, they would have made a killing but I was taken pity on by Erin Swanson and she made me some hot coffee.
The course was the same as yesterday but the pen and shed were reversed. You did the pen then the shed. The sheep were harder today and would split into two groups or try to bolt to the exhaust. Most of the scallywags were the Suffolk ewes.
I ran Nan first and she cast out nice then cut in for a cross. She took the look back and then cast out nice and fast lift but then had a pretty smooth fetch. We had a decent drive, aside from her slicing, hit both panels and nice turn to the pen. The ewes danced about for a bit and she really wanted to grip one, but held her ground and got them in. We walked in into the shed ring and she pried two apart for a speedy and perfect shed. She placed 15th out of 56 dogs, even with her crossover. I will be working on the slicing on the drive! But she ran her heart out for me today. Half of the Open dogs did NOT get scores today. Patrick and Andi and Suzy and Dot also got perfect sheds.
Maid was second form last. She cast out nice and I gave her a redirect at the gate just to be on the safe side and she lost four for that but the rest was dandy. A bit hard of a lift and offline and then she went sideways with the sheep. I flanked her and they all finally came back in sight. She was working nice but one sour ewe wanted no part of her or the other sheep. She was a fat Suffolk and just want to stop. As the sheep went through the fetch panels, three broke for the exhaust and the sour ewe stopped. Maid really wanted to move along the solo ewe but I flanked her wide to get the runaways and bring them back. She tucked them back with the solo ewe and the long journey began.
We had to tuck her in every few steps as she didn't want to move. You could tell that Maid was getting a wee bit impatient but listened to me and held her teeth at bay. We got the turn and had a nice first leg, made the panel and the ewe began to fight her every step. I would tuck the three back in, go three steps, then have Maid tuck them back again and again. The solo ewe only want to go a few steps before she stopped. She took a nice nice nose grip once then worked her heart out. They faced each other off quite a bit but Maid would flank for me to tuck back the three ewes and we made the cross drive panels. It was a long and slow drive and then as I was going to the pen, we timed out. I was happy with Maid as she listened to me and tucked the three ewes back than grip the standoffish ewe. As I left the course, Amanda Miliken (judge) remarked to me, that Maid looked relaxed with me! She did well with me and I enjoyed our run.
Suzy Applegate ran very nice runs with Buzz and Tru. She handled the sheep with kid gloves and worked the tough ewes into the pen. patrick and Andi had a nice run and at the pen, Patrick busted out some dance moves to get the ewes to go into the pen.
I was quite happy that I was able to get scores on both of my dogs as it was very tough on both days. But it sure wore me out!
I took photos but you will have to wait until later this week for me to edit them and post them. I am too tired right now!
I got this copy of scores from Barb McPherson as the ones I took, got messed up. Tomorrow are the two Nursery, PN, and Novice.
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