Amanda: California, Here She Comes!

Zamora has all the trappings of a great trial. Range ewes, an idyllic setting on soft green hills, and this year a great judge, National Champion Patrick Shanahan.

I am going. Travelling with dogs nowadays is done against all odds. Airlines refuse them for all possible reasons. Normally I can fly from Kingston, connect in Toronto and go straight to San Francisco. But for the winter, the planes from Kingston are too small to accommodate dogs. I have to drive to Toronto and fly from there which seems straightforward but, assuredly, it is anything but. Traffic north of Toronto, airport parking, manoeuvring dogs, customs, and security equal pain. And that does not include the San Francisco end.

I was considering my chances of not looking like a fool given all this combative effort. I have not had a dog around sheep for a month and half. Even if the dogs run fine, one has to question my capacity to have any timing with them. I am likely to run badly.
I will tell you how I feel about the experience at its conclusion.

I am leaving Clive in California for month, with Sandi Anderson. It will save me pushing him through the airports twice and he will be available for west coast bitches should anyone think he can do something for their breeds

I can’t wait to be there, all the same, in the California rain and mud. Zamora, here I come.