Calgary Second Run with Roo

I am so not a morning person so waking up before the sun is even thinking about peeking over the horizon is not in my cards but I had to get up anyways. The second go round was at 7:00 a.m. and we dragged our dogs and ourselves to the Stampede. of course, we were not up until mid pack but I wanted to see the runs so Janet humored me.

Janet ran before me and she laid down and awesome run only to time out at the pen. She had the sheep all lined up and calm but was short on time. She will post her runs on her blog in the next few days. It was a bittersweet ending as that was Scott's last run. He ran well, for an old dog and showed that he still had what it takes.

Roo and I felt like we were clicking and we were. The first obstacle was against the draw then you had to do several tight turns,  then around the post, chute and pen. I set him out and then stopped him short to make the first barrel. He ran well and took my flanks and was on the money until I made a huge handler error. I thought that that I had cleared a barrel but was short so I had to do it again. To my surprise, I did it again but recovered and kept going. This cost me over 30-45 seconds but Roo did the rest of the run like a champ. We got to the pen but didn't have time to get it and thus we knocked ourselves out of the Finals.  Regardless, Roo ran his heart out for me and I was the weakest link.

Taped by Janet Walker

Since I manage to lose my score sheet, I don't remember how people placed but there were some great runs with time just a shade over 2 minutes.  They ran all the runs in the morning and the 15 Finalists at 7:00 p.m. We took some videos and in the next day or two, I will post them.

After the runs, we went and saw some fair sights. Then our tour guide Milt, took us to the vendor's area and we shopped but didn't find anything that struck our fancy. Lunch was at the Wonton restaurant and then to the Superdogs. Our tour guide abandoned us at this point and after watching a few seconds of the Superdog, (it was not to our style!) we left to go and watch the rest of the Cowboy Challenge.

We lollygagged about then made our way to watch the Final Round of the Stockdog Championships. We took some videos and rooted for everyone. It was nice to see some great stock work. In the end, Dale won it and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. We really enjoyed it and plan to come back next year.

The final standings are below.

After it was all said and done, we made out way back to the hotel. We manage to sneak and get a table just before the restaurant closed and ate our last meal in Calgary. It was a good meal and soon sweet dreams filled our brains as we relived the wonderful time we had in Calgary.

Thanks to all who made it a wonderful journey. The Canadian Kindness strikes again.