BevLive: The Big One, Day 2
Well, the wind continued to blow all day at something between 30-40mph. The big difference from yesterday is that it blew into our faces. Dogs couldn’t hear anything until at or after the fetch gates. Made for a very interesting trial to watch and a nearly impossible one to run in.
Still there were some nice runs. Jean Gellings and Star had a good morning run and Tom Wilson and Sly a good late day run.
Still at the end Lyle’s really nice run from yesterday was the winner followed by Dale Montgomery also from last night (tied at 70). More then half the dogs had no scores. My 54 with Nel made the top twenty.
The sheep mostly eluded the dogs at the turn by splitting and disappearing amongst the parked cars. But there were many ways to fail and over the course of the day folks discovered most of them.
We started the second runs tonight at the conclusion of the first trial. I had come back to the camp grounds by then so I don’t know what changed. Tomorrow is supposed to be more wind and warmer so we all get to try it again. The constant wind really wears you out after a while.
I spotted sheep for an hour or so with Joe. Except for being more eager to walk up then lay down he did a good job. It was blowing even harder at the set out on the top of the field then at the handler’s post.
It was nice to see some of the dogs get up that half mile outrun and pick up their sheep with total control and confidence. Didn’t happen often but it was nice to see when it did. I was particularly struck by Marilyn Terpstra’s Gin who did a great job with a group that had moved off the set out spot and we were trying to reposition. Gin took them over and marched them away with a quick glance at us to make sure there were no hurt feelings.
The wind is still whistling around my windows. Unusual for here where it generally dues down at dusk. Oh well, wouldn’t be North Dakota without a little wind.
Amanda: The Big One, Day 1
The poisons of 25 hours of the last day’s air travel were washed off on Wednesday night at a hotel, just across the US border in in Plentywood, Montana. That not washed off in the shower was cleansed away with a good night’s sleep.
The painted canyon at Teddy Roosevelt National park
The prairie south of Regina was water logged—rows of big hay bales had water half way up; no planting done, water water everywhere. Lake Wascana is always a joke among us eastern Millikens (whose father comes from Regina) but it was no joke this year. And there were replicas of Lake Wascana all over the normally arid grasslands. We thought we had it bad.
Rosy Fingered Dawn on the prairies
I woke up in the dark and carried on to Bowman, an easy five hours from my resting place. The trial had been trouble already. The outrun is the biggest of my dog running career. 8000 yards up a bute to get four newly shorn yearling range ewes. The wind was the type that got prairie women of yore committing suicide. Full in your face so you could list into it and it would hold you up. No scores outnumbered the scores. My two dogs were in the majority with no scores. I really do not think they could hear for the wind and that jerk, Clive, after a perfect outrun and lift and a great start to his fetch , asked where the hell I was and came down the field to me. Great. I sent him back and then he repeated on the second time he fetched. I walked.
Dale Montgomery and Lyle Boyer tied for first. Joni was in there and Jean Gellings.
BevLive: The Big One, Day 1
Day started really cold and windy. Really windy, North Dakota windy which is pretty serious. Camp ground was fairly deserted when I got up so I was able to let the dogs have about an hour of free running around time.
Herbert and Alison got in from the Cattle Finals at about 11:00 and Al set up the puppy pen for Becca and her brothers which was very nice for the puppy. She has been a very good sport about all the crate time but I know it must be hard for her.
Running of the open on the big field began at 3:00. Bud was up first and had trouble on his lift. Nel and I were second. She had a great outrun. I gave her one call in so she didn’t go too wide but she nailed the top. Watching dogs run out 900 yards is very cool. The sheep are freer moving then the Colorado sheep but still turn and face the dog when ever they aren’t running away. A difficult combination for Nel who seeks total control. She didn’t hold her side on the beginning part of the fetch and went too wide letting them get way off line. We got the gates and the rest was okay. Missed second drive and another confused shed. I think I must be confusing her there some how because she’s a great shedder. Any way a mediocre run.
Lyle Ladd and Shep had a good run right after us showing that it was very possible.
I ran Hemp a bit later. He pushed too hard on the fetch and lost a sheep at the turn around the post. A not uncommon occurrence but disappointing.
I think all together they ran almost 20 dogs tonight. The wind was quite strong when we started, 30mph at a guess but dropped a lot as it got later. There is no wind now which is a very pleasant change. No wind, no rain.
They hope to finish this first open tomorrow and get ten or so dogs from the second open run. The field is dry enough so we can all drive our vehicles to the trial site which is a relief. It’s a long walk from the main road to the trial field about a mile.
So I have tomorrow off. Time to do some laundry alas. I want to get back over and watch some. It’s a very fun trial to watch. The outrun is very pretty and the sheep are very tough. A great combination.
BevLive: Mud in North Dakota
I’m camped at the lovely Butte View campgrounds in Bowman, ND. I spent the last two days at the Boudreau’s in Marcus, SD and drove up here this morning. Since it rained most of the time I was at Bud and Sarah’s, Rene, the trial organizer from the Big One has requested that all the campers stay at the campgrounds since the ground at the Kerr Ranch is too wet to handle us all driving in and out. I don’t know how they are going to managed all of the trucks each day but I’m sure they have a plan.
Break in the weather at Bud and Sarah's house.
I’m delighted they haven’t cancelled these trials. The rain has been prodigious. Joni Swanke told me that while they normally get 12″ of rain a year they have had 9″ in the last two weeks, and that was befoe this week’s heavy rainfall. The ground is saturated everywhere and the dirt roads are in very slick condition as I can testify to first hand after slipping and sliding down five miles of the Boudreau’s road this afternoon. It doesn’t take much of a slide to scare me with that trailer following my truck into the mud.
Healthy coating of South Dakota mud
BevLive: at the Boudreau’s
So I arrived at one of my favorite places at 12:30 on a beautiful, sunny, albeit windy afternoon. I’m at Bud and Sarah Boudreau’s ranch in the spring time. Its wonderful. Covered in short grass prairie with the wind moving the grass like waves.
Bud bought a small flock of sheep to entertain his guests. He let Joe and me out on his three tame, practice sheep. They were much too light for Joe accustomed to pushing the heavy Colorado sheep about. Within three minutes I had two in the hills and one 300 yards away in a swamp. Not a very auspicious start to our Dakota adventure.
Bud saddled his horse and rounded the sheep up for us and held them 450 yards away on top of a big hill. Odinn nailed the outrun completing it with a dandy lift. Unfortunately when they came out of the hollow on the fetch we were back down to two sheep. Bud from his higher vantage point saw her run through the middle and pull one poor dear down twice until she finally stayed down. Then Odinn very nicely fetched the remaining two.
Bud reset them and the second time was the charm. A good outrun and steady fetch. I only have two days here. I’m going to really concentrate on trying to get Odinn ready for these next two trials and run her in Hemp’s place.
Later in the evening I took Nel and Joe out on four of the lambs. I let Joe get a feel for them and he backed himself off and settled down nicely. Nel is working them much too cautiously. I will work her some more tomorrow.
Tom and Carla arrived at 6:00 in convoy with Dennis and Jean Gellings having joined up with them in Sturgis. Carla brought the results of the last days running. Robin French and Bill won with Jeanine Van de Merwe in second followed by Alan Mills and Linda Tesdahl tied and Hemp and me in 5th. I didn’t see Jeanine’s run but Robin’s was very nice.
So off to bed. Tomorrow will be all of us wearing out poor Bud’s sheep and showing off our young dogs. I got Joe as a puppy from Dennis and Jean and they have his two littermates. I’m very curious to see how they all stack up to my lovely boy.
BevLive: Tabletop SDT, Double Lift
These trailing days start with such possibility. Nice high country weather. Sunny with fleecy clouds. Alas the wind came up around noon and really blew pretty hard. It was at our backs which was good, but it blew so hard it wasn’t always easy to hear each other talk, which is of course the principle activity of dog trials.
Today was the last day. It was a double lift trial. Two groups of 4 sheep spotted about 350 yards away up a pretty steep hill and about 400 yards apart. After the gathers you were to split the sheep and pen the 4 your dog turned on. Unfortunately, encouraged by Larry Adam’s nice fast first run, I set the time too short at 10 minutes. If everything went very well it was time enough. But one error and you couldn’t finish.
The running wasn’t great. Many failed attempts. Even the successes usually included at least one missed fetch panel. There were plenty of finished runs but not every good run got done because of the short clock.
Hemp again had a “take no prisoners” attitude and while his sheep moved pretty fast they were very unsettled. We weren’t able to hold the shed long enough to pen. He had a moderately good turn back and was still in third place when I left.
Nel was not very good. For some reason she assaulted a sheep at the fetch gate and we were lucky not to be called off. This ruined what had started as a good go. I left right after our run but I know it scored poorly.
Tom Wilson and Sly had a good turn back marred by Sly losing track of the sheep at the top of the first out run and a missed second fetch. Carla had a beautiful turn back but again missed gates. Linda Tesdahl with Juno and Alan Mills and Sis were tied. Linda had some trouble with the turn back but good fetches. Alan had a beautiful run with a missed fetch. There were still some to run when I left but those runs would have taken some beating.
Everyone seemed to really enjoy the different challenge and the opportunity to help their dogs to find the sheep even if they didn’t get it on the first try. It felt less like a trial and more like friends running dogs. Probably because we were all so bad at it with too few exceptions.
This was once again a great week of trailing. A wonderful field and great sheep. Lise had more help this year from Terry Murray and a great set out crew. I’m not sure who all else helped but it all went off very well and was a lot of fun.
I’m currently in Torrington, WY at the fair grounds camped with Robin French. I’m on my way to Bud and Sarah Boudreau’s ranch for a couple of days then off to rainy North Dakota.
BevLive: Tabletop SDT, Day 4
Nice day. Some wind and cool but much the best day so far.
Cool and windy in Colorado
Finished the open around 3:30. Alan Mills and Sis won with far the best run of the trial. Ron Burkey and Carla King tied for second. Wilda Barr was 4th and Nel and I were fifth.
As predicted the sheep were very nice this morning. They were a bit heavy as the day went on but handled right, as Alan showed, they could be lovely.
After the open we ran two nurseries. The first was a smallish course with about a 200 yard outrun. This was the easiest nursery thus far and most of the dogs handled it. The sheep were pretty heavy for some of the young dogs unaccustomed to being questioned. Meg redeemed herself with a very respectable performance. Her first good run on the western sheep. Ron Burkey and Shadow had a great run to win the class.
Nursery Action
The second nursery was bigger with perhaps 300 yards on the outrun and a little bigger drive. The class was smaller with some handlers opting out of the second run. Joe had his best run thus far really handling the sheep and won the class. I was very pleased to see the top of his outrun opening up a bit and him really listening on the lift. What fun youngster he is.
Tonight was the handler’s dinner. Great food and a pleasant warm evening for sitting outside. Lise gave out the prizes won thus far. Etched wine glasses for the class winners and dog food for second place.
The course is all laid out for tomorrow’s double lift trial and the last event. Should be fun.
BevLive: Tabletop SDT, Day 3
Sun came out to all of out delights. The wind blew but not at the 60mph forecast. Still we were all bundled up in all the clothes we had brought with us. It was cold but a huge improvement over yesterday. The road has dried out and except for being heavily rutted is quite passable.
We started an hour later at 7:30 with a combined Ranch Nursery class of about 45 dogs. The out run was about 200 yards with a small drive. There was some very nice work in the class but also a lot of struggling and some dogs just totally flummoxed by the sheep and needing rescuing. Vicky Yablonsky (sorry if I misspelled but I can’t find my running order) had a great run with her dog to win the class. Mindy Bower probably had the best gather of the class but came to grief on the drive. Carla King had a really great go as did Bridgette Strang with their nursery dogs.
I ran Joe with great trepidation as he has never worked anything remotely like these sheep. I need not have worried. He handled them with great aplomb even taking a stop at the end of his outrun. I let him carry on a bit to make sure he had a good time with them so we missed most of our panels. At the pen he was pretty clueless and we finished with not much score but I was over the moon with him.
Meg had one of her over active days and while she showed plenty of speed she didn’t get much done.
After the Ranch/Nursery Lise changed the course and we ran a straight nursery. This repeat performance was hard for a lot of the dogs and most didn’t run as well, Joe ran first. His outrun was not as good as his first run but he was otherwise a bit more confident and really listened except for the fetch panel and first drive where he got a bit carried away and zinged the sheep. Joni Swanke’s Possom also ran much better the second time showing much more authority and having a good run after a difficult gather. Generally though the running wasn’t great and Joe ended up winning with a pretty mediocre run.
We hadn’t seen anything yet though. The course was reset yet again with the longest gather yet and we started the third open at 4:00 with the plan of running until 6:30 and then finishing in the morning. Talk about rough running!
We ended up running 12 dogs. The first 8 got no score either failing to bring the sheep or disqualifying. Tom Wilson and Sly were the 9th up and happily for those of us still to run got the sheep around. I ran Nel next and she had a very credible run to my delight. Her outrun was too wide but she kept her sheep moving so we had time to finish. Alas we wasted much of the time when we couldn’t shed. Finally we got the shed and I went to the pen with 21 seconds left. I encouraged Nel to push in and closed the gate as the timer went off. Way too close for comfort.
Clearly the sheep had begun to improve and the next runner also finished. I missed the 12th run but it looked like they were getting the fetch done so the curse had been broken. I think it was the longest run of no scores I have seen. It was scary. The sheep didn’t look that bad and spotted okay but they were ornery. We were all watching the clock wishing for 6:30 so we could run in the morning when we hoped for happier sheep.
This is a great huge field. Each run has been different. Lise has two setout pens so she keeps shifting the set out, the handler’s post and drives to keep things interesting. Makes for a lot of different trials in one place. Nice with fuel at $4.00 a gallon.
BevLive: Tabletop SDT, Day 2
Tough day. Rained last night and this morning with some nasty thunder storms. Then it began to hail and thunder and lightening at which point the trial was stopped for a while to save the great set out crew from electrocution. In the afternoon the hail finally melted but the wind came up and blew down the fetch line at about 25-30 mph. I spent most of the day huddled in my camper with heat on. It has now cleared a bit. Still very cold with a nasty wind. Tomorrow is predicted 60 mph winds and sun.
Campers in the hail
The road into here is a morass. The last one out got stuck and no one has tried to leave since about 3:00. I expect a day of 60 mph winds and sunshine will dry the road out. The people staying at the local B&B are walking up the hill and leaving their cars here.
In spite of the difficult weather there were some great runs. Robin French and Bill laid down the gauntlet about 20 runs in with a 86. Not long after Dan Keaton scored 89 with York. The 89 stood until one of the last few runs when Nel (Awel) and I got a 90. She really handled the sheep well today which was nice after her struggle with them yesterday. I guess she just needed a day to think about it. There were multiple runs in the 80s.
These sheep are still difficult milling about and needed some push to get around but they are already a lot wiser then they were yesterday after only one run. They are especially fun at the lift. They are being spotted on horseback by two riders and no dog. So they spread quite a bit while they wait for the next dog, perhaps as much as 20-30′. It means as the dog comes over the brow of the hill he needs to see all the sheep and really tuck them in. The strong head wind meant that most of the dogs had to do on their own as there was very little possible communication.
Odinn huddled out of weather
Tomorrow we will run the young dogs. There was to be a nursery tonight but we were all shot after the pounding we have had from the weather today. No one objected when Lise sent the poor set out crew home and canceled the nursery.
BevLive: Tabletop SDT, Day 1
Got an early start today as we had a big field, unbroken range ewes(yearlings I think) and a lot of dogs to run. It’s getting dark and the trial just finished. Eleven minute course was short time as only about 3-4 people managed to pen but all we had daylight for.
The sheep were tough. Not fighting or doing a huge amount of splitting and running. They were just very dog ignorant and didn’t want to go. So they mostly milled around and then went a little way (usually the wrong way) and then spun around some more.
About half the dogs got no score. Of the remaining dogs with scores many never finished the drive. There were very few finished runs. The last I looked Larry Adams and his great old bitch, Raid, looked to have it in the bag with a 71. I know that all the 60s are in the money and I’m sure the 50s are too. Anyone with a score in the mid-30s such as mine was in the top 25%. Tough sledding and a lot of fun to try.
The weather was very unsettled all day with periods of heavy clouds and thunder and lightening followed by bright sun. I don’t think the weather made the sheep any happier. Each dog got five fresh sheep spotted on horseback. Most of the dogs handled the 450 yard outrun without trouble. It was the sheep gave the trial it’s flavor.
Tomorrow the whole course gets changed. The post and outrun are moved as well as the drives. That will make the outrun an issue as well as the sheep. Hope I do better.