BevLive: at the Double “F”

THURSDAY

We are sitting in Amanda's camper accentuating the positive. Let's see–Roz ran well. Did a really good job at the pen. Actually, we can't really complain about any of them. The sheep just beat us.

Hemp ran first and took quite a bit of disrespect from the sheep, but finally had to assert himself and we were disqualified.Mirk did great keeping a mentally unstable ewe in company with her associates.

But it took too long and cost too much score. He ended up 5th. Amanda had a poor fetch with Ethel in the morning and no pen to come 6th.

Clive's sheep ran hard and he did a great job, just didn't get it done.

 

Trial field is the yellow stubble. 450-yard outrun.

So we all went down to the river for a swim and came home without Ethel. Since she was shortly reunited with us by a local rancher the day ended well.

We have all vowed to do better tomorrow. Bill Orr and Dennis Gellings tied for first. I think Bill won, not sure. It's a really good trial.

Straightforward course and very difficult sheep.

FRIDAY

Another very hot day. It was in the 30s last night and around 90 by 5:00pm. The sun is really hot here. but at least if you can find some shade the lack of humidity always makes the heat bearable. Alas, there was no shade on the trial field and some of the dogs felt the heat. I know I sure did.

I ran Mirk fairly early in the morning, when we were all still wearing winter coats. He was terrible on his fetch. He never took a hold of his sheep as he should have. The rest of his work was pretty good, but I sure didn't like his fetch. Amanda ran Ethel shortly after me and had a good go but no pen. I believe the sheep were harder to pen today for some reason. Had either Ethel or Mirk penned they would have been in the prizes but in spite of some great work there no go.Of course I suspect this would have been true of a number of teams. The what-if game is endless.

 

Camper parking in the pine woods

I must confess I took the dogs for a long walk in the cool and then when the heat came in retired to the shade of my camper and missed most of the da'ys running. Although I did read a really good book.

Hemp ran three from the end so I saw the last seven or eight runs.

Really hot and very unforgiving sheep with tremendous pressure to the exhaust from all over the large field. Hemp was a good boy. I let him get a good hold on the sheep at the beginning of his fetch to avoid them running away from him totally out of control, a not uncommon-occurrence, and he hung on to them all the way around getting the obstacles with reasonable lines. Three minutes of penning did us no good there but the rest of his work was good enough to win. Candy Kennedy and Noelle Williams tied for second and Bill Orr put in another good run for fourth. Amanda didn't get in the prizes but her nursery dog, Roz, really stepped up with a good performance bettering yesterday's work.

Tomorrow we do the young dogs. I will run Esther and Amanda has Monty in.