Arena Trial

Been awhile since I've posted- busy beyond words most days!! I did go to the state fair arena trial. It's VBCA sponsored and it's a bit of tradition for me. It was the very first herding trial I entered I can still remember how sick-to-your-stomach nervous I was. So nervous that at the pen I couldn't say one correct flank, so I finally just shut up and let Cruz put them in on his own. In the year's past this has always been the one trial my family attends with me. This year Ben was out on the ship and because the whole fair is in a brand new location, I felt it was best to not take the kids. I'm glad I made that choice, as the equestrian center is on the opposite side of the highway of the fair. They have a pedestrian tunnel, but at 11 and 13, I would have not sent them alone... It was nice to not have the arena right in the heart of the fair. The new equestrian center is beautiful. I was really hoping at the new location the trial could be in a field, but alas it's still an arena. Arenas are tough. Yup, there's really no outrun, no lengthy crossdrive, no place you lose sight of the dog, or he can't hear your whistles, but to make "panels", get a shed, and to keep some dogs from either freezing up or gripping out can be really, really challenging in all that pressure. I think it's a true test of a well rounded stockdog. A good dog should be able to work as well in a barnyard as he does in the 100 acre pasture. He should be able to sort and hold sheep in tight quarters for feet work, deworming, etc without being either run over or making sheep too nervous to relax in the tight area.

My guys did pretty well. Especially considering the fact that both Mary and Gwen were in heat (and I mean good heat!). The placement of my passengers in the cab of my truck was strategic, as some will not stay in the front, and there's really only room for 2 in the front seat with me... Heck, I couldn't even stop for gas! LOL!! Anyway...

MaryJane and Ella had a very nice Novice run and placed 4th out of a large class of close to 20. Not much I remember about it other than it being nice. It was tricky for Novice people to place their dogs in the right spot so to not lose their sheep throughout the whole course. Ella did a nice job with that and Mary Jane was very willing to listen. :-)

Toss was good considering the hormone level of my entire crew! He listened, but over all was too much up on his sheep for that arena. The result was one ornery sheep testing Toss through much of the course. At a couple different spots she even turned around and stomped at him. I was proud of him for simply holding his ground and making her change her mind via a very pc manner. :-) It's very hard to have much for lines when A) it's an arena and B) you have one sheep not playing the game. We didn't get a ribbon, but I was happy with his run.

Gwen being in big time heat made me wonder, but she did wonderful. I was very, very proud of my "bubble girl", as not one time did she lock up!! :-)) Making "panels" or having nice lines was very much luck. Sometimes you'd get sheep that would just wait at the turn of the panel, but most had sheep that would run back to the set out/exhaust (same place). Gwen's ran back. Which meant not only did she have to lift them off that heavy draw on the send, she had to lift them again to bring them back to the pen. She did a wonderful job. Yup, lots of line points lost, but I was thrilled that my little girl who can struggle with pressure and the sheep's bubble did such a lovely job!! :-) I'm not there for ribbons, I'm there to make myself and my dogs better and to evaluate where we are and what we need to work on. I don't think the lower level classes should ever be about winning a ribbon. They are about development. I felt the same way when I trained and showed 2-3 year old horses. The Jr. classes are about evaluating where the horse is at in his training and to get him exposure. It's no different with the dogs. That's only me though. Everyone's different. To me I'm out there running against only myself. I feel better about a really nice run and no ribbon than a crummy run and a ribbon. I really do. I'd be lieing if I said I don't like to get a ribbon, of course I do. But in the lower classes it is about so much more than a ribbon. I thought Gwen might place, and I think we were close but we didn't. Being an arena the judge didn't have much to work with, so the scores were very close. Often times a matter of 3 points was the difference between 1st and not placing.

Deal was perfect! Again, pressure can be rough for her. With her it's eye, not skating around the bubble like Gwen. Deal can get sucked in and be too tight. She needed a second flank on the send as I could see she was going to choke up when she started to feel all the pressure. She needed a couple reminders to stay back through the course, but she took them and she took every stop whistle. In a nutshell she was delightful. I really thought she would be up there in the ribbons but wasn't. Again, the scores were so close that it only took a point or two to not be 1st. But I was thrilled with her responsiveness and willingness to take my direction. :-) She's really going to be a nice dog to run in Open. Hopefully I can really work on the shed with her over the winter so she can run in Open in the spring. Right now she doesn't 100% understand and gets frustrated. When she gets frustrated she uses her teeth. 98% of the time I can see it coming and keep it from getting to the level of teeth, but she can still sneak a grip in that I didn't see coming. I don't want to have wonderful runs and then be DQd on the shed. ;-p Deal is such a wonderful dog, but for a long time I questioned weather she would ever be a team player. She's very talented, so she has always been right a large amount of time. However until this year she was not trustworthy to take direction at a distance. Maturity and training (with her it was a lot of leg work to show her I was going to get to her regardless the distance) is paying off and now she's becoming a dog I trust very much.

Open, like the other classes was a good size class of 20 or more. If there were 20 dogs, there were maybe 8-9 sheds. Hard, hard, hard with hair sheep in an arena. Cruz had a nice run. Not perfect, again with the luck factor on the "cross drive" and how far they'd run to the exhaust. Cruz felt the pressure on the send and came in early on the lift. Being that he's such a gentleman to his sheep and has such stellar stock sense I left him alone. In hindsight I should have gave him one bump whistle. Why? Because of the 8 or 9 dogs that got a shed, Cruz was one of them. :-) It was a rough one and one that only a dog that really understands what a shed is would have gotten. When we finally got a split, they all ran back to the exhaust. Cruz being Cruz, stayed 110% focused on only the single (visualize 2 sheep on the left, dog in the middle, single on the right), and managed to turn her just a few strides away from getting to the exhaust. He's such a good boy. He stopped her and kept her from rejoining her partners in crime all while being nearly right up against the exhaust fence. She gave us a 5/10 shed (we had to have been close to time). So in the end there were three of us with an 80. Well because I let Cruz cut his send short, we were the odd man out. The other 2 80's placed... LOL! What's even funnier? If we would have had an 82, we would have been 3rd. That's how tight all the scores were. But who cares. I was thrilled that in our 3rd Open run of the two sheds we've had to do (one was difficult chute system rather than a shed), we've gotten them both. :-)

So that was the day. Good Ol State Fair. I wish Ben would have been home so I could have stayed and watched some of the horse stuff after the trial. It looked like they were going to be some Team Roping or Barrel Racing or such. When I see horses I miss them terribly! They really are just a 1000# version of a Border Collie. :-)

I've got today off, work the weekend and then Mon and Tuesday off. I'm looking forward to it! It's been an intense 10 days at work. I put in almost 50 hours this week, and my days off were at the two ends of the week- Sunday and today...

The puppies are doing great. Emma has turned on and she is HARD CORE!! Lordy she is going to be somethin'!! Here's hopin' she's biddable!! She does seem to have a good head on shoulders, but she is intense and I can already see she is not going to take any shit- none!! She's going to be a lot of dog if she keeps on the same path she has started on. I have a few pictures of her from earlier in the week, but they are awful as she was taking them here and there and running them up my legs etc... She'd get them right to me then circle them to keep them from leaving. Yeah, circling while snapping her teeth! I have to say it makes you laugh to see all that from something with 6" legs!! My poor ewes were going, "what in the world is that!?" LOL! Logan's not so sure as of now. Today I might try her on the geese simply because there won't be so much running. I'll give little Logan another shot as well.

Well, I need to get outside and get a whole lot of things done before I grow roots in this sofa! What it must be like to just sit and not have much of anything to do! I wouldn't know... I need to start "winterizing" things outside for the animals. My geese need a shelter built and the sheep barn needs to be cleaned and bedded. I did buy one round of straw for the dog kennels, but I need to do another round so they have one corner (the kennels are covered) that's deep with straw for those chilly mornings. I'm still thinking about buying barrels. Stuffed with straw, that is a nice cozy place. Dog houses are out of the question at $80-90 a piece. Times that by a dozen... yeah OOOkay! Not! Even the barrels would have to bought in steps, as the one's I've seen are $20-30 each. That's still a lot of moo-la. In this climate all the dogs need in the winter is to not be wet and have a place to be off the ground. I don't think it's chilly enough yet because the garage/kennel is fully insulated so it's still toasty in there in the morning, but once it really dips down I stuff their crates with straw as well. (they're up at night- they go to bed just like us). The puppies (older pups) seem to have outgrown their destructive stages and Emma and Logan don't seem to be into that, so for the last week or so they have been back to being allowed to be on the whole property again. (except for my girls in heat and Toss who have to kenneled for the time being).

I still have to do Cruz and Deal's profiles. I have the pictures for it, it's just getting to it... I'm hoping one thing I can do on my 2 days off in row is play with the pictures I took in that raw format. I can't do it on my laptop, so I need to use one of the boys' computer. I should run in to Franklin today to say goodbye to our co-manager that will be going to NC. So off to spend the rest of my day outside. It's lovely out, sunny and will be about 70. :-) Best part is today is Friday, so I don't need to worry much about "kid kare" when the boys get home. I can just keep on till dark- which of course is getting earlier and earlier... Poohie!