Well we went to two trials last week. Last Sunday we went up to Hickory Hills in Palmyra. This is a pretty small field, with extremely intense draws with sheep that know how to beat even the best dogs. Keep the dog on and they run, back the dog off and they either run to a "safe" spot (they have so many) or they just stand there. They hate to drive up the hill to the panels, and do everything they can to squirt somewhere else. It's quite hard in a small field to fix lines when every which way is a direction they want to run. And dogs like Gwen have such a difficult time with that. She had a beautiful O/L/F. But almost to the drive panel we started getting beat. She hates to feel all that pressure and her eye and feel for pressure start to bog her down. She did get the panels. She will get less bogged down with confidence. When she's excited she gets sticker- and as she gets more field time, she will be less excited. Tom Lacy was judging and he liked her and said I would have a good time with her. I think Gwen placed 4th. Tom only took 7 points off her run. Toss did a very nice job, but once again did that goofy looking back at me on the outrun send for the first 50' or so. I imagine only field time will fix that. It's not something he does at home. Moving the sheep was not an issue for him, as he's very forward. I had to remind him a few times to keep his drive flanks square. He was 5th.
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Cruz won the Ranch class. He had a very nice O/L so I was very pleased with him. The Ranch drive was very difficult, as it was a right hand drive past the exhaust and then turning to the inside of the field and past the setout- where they use grain to hold them... You had to hold them on the outside to keep them from going to the exhaust- yet not let the dog get so far out of position that they couldn't make the turn to the left. Making the turn to the left required a huge counter clockwise flank for almost everyone- even setting them high and trying to let them drift back to make the panels didn't work very well. Then the next hurdle was how far to let that flank go. You had to flank 'away' far enough to make the turn and keep them from going further up the hill back to the food- but flank that way too far and they would RUN LIKE THE WIND back DOWN the field to the exhaust. And this is all on a small field- so it can go to hell in a hand basket in a heart beat. We missed our first panel by a hair- my dog had it all under control and I had to mess with it... We ended up with the sheep half way back to the post before Cruz was in position to turn them back up the field and back on line for the cross drive. We did a n/c run also, and even with everything going as nicely as we could do, the sheep still ended up part way up the field on the way to the cross drive panels. Put my hands up in the air in a question when I got to Tom and he agreed there was just nothing that could be done- aside from some good luck. Ella and Mary Jane won their Novice run. It's a hard field to see much of the run from the fenceline. During her n/c run I stood by the caboda with the judge so I could see. Mary did well for her, aside from not wanting to take her lie downs, but given the pressure of the field, that's understandable.
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Thursday was the State Fair and it's the last year in the horse arena! Yahoo on that! Again with all the pressure and little to no room to fix lines. They used Karen Lacy's nice sheep. Given the circumstances I thought the sheep were about as well behaved as they could possibly be. Ella let Mary Jane be pushy at the post. She didn't get her onto the better side to send her and then when MJ started to leave her, she just let her go. Ugh! So Ella and MJ were both unsure of what was going on. Mary has a very nice outrun, but because she knew she hadn't really been sent, she went pretty tight and then blew them apart at the top. They were heavy to lift because of the grain. So poor Ella didn't even get to give it a whirl... But she learned something- to NEVER let your dog just go. I told her even if she gets 30' away- get her back! Better to take the OR points hit and have the rest of the run! She shouldn't feel too bad though- 3 times out and they've been first twice! Gwen struggled with the pressure and heavy sheep. We got past the drive panels and when they ran to the exhaust, one of them actually went BEHIND the green banner that was hanging on the fence! I thought, we'll never get past this. We gave it a go, but she ended up gripping... Darn. Don't blame her though. She got further in the Nursery class, but again gripped out. Deal surprisingly did NOT grip out! I had to warn her a few times, but she did very nicely. She ended up 3rd in a very big, competitive ProNovice class- I think there were 19 dogs. I didn't take Toss because Kit is in heat and he's being a moron. Cruz was Cruz and his run was so fantastic. We missed our 2nd panels by a hair! Poop! But made the free standing chute. Cruz is so amazing about always just getting the job done- no matter the situation! He has such settled control over just about any kind of sheep in just about any type of field. He's such a gentleman, but does not let the stock take control. He's never too forward or too sticky, he's always just right- his feel for sheep and what they're feeling is simply amazing. I sure wish I could have him back as a pup so he could have developed a better outrun and from-the-post spotting skills.... Doug Brewer and one of his nice dogs beat us by 2 points, so we were 2nd. Ranch was a big class too. I took Kit along to send from the post in Nursery so whoever won would get the points. I decided I need to get serious with her. She's going to be nice- nice and forward like her father. I sent her, and stopped her to help with her outrun (she's never been sent from the post- or been anywhere else but Carol's). She listened and got around the sheep. I let her fetch them to me back to the exhaust. She was quite pleased with herself and was very well behaved along the fenceline while waiting for her turn.
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I need to talk to David about leasing the field across the driveway. I believe he said the current lease on the farm was till Oct. It sure would be wonderful if we could lease that field. My little area is much like the field at Hickory Hill- small and full of pressure. There's cotton in the field right now, but it's looking close to being ready. I'm anxious to have that 20 acres back! :-)
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Mt. Pleasant is already full, so I guess we're not going... There should be a winter trial at Tom's and the Wilson's usually have a Jan. trial too. And Roy and Debbie normally have a winter cattle trial. I'm not sure if I'm going to go to many more trials in Palmyra. I'd really rather drive to Carol's and get all the dogs well worked. It was more money in gas to go up there and back than it was in entries.... Think I'll save my pennies for some bigger field trials where we can really get some experience and learn. I'd like to get Cruz to Open in the spring...
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