BevLive: Meeker, Day Three

Heather just reminded me I am supposed to be blogging. I got caught up in the trial and forgot.

The running has been extremely difficult. It isn’t so much that the sheep fight as that they stand and face the dog. Individuals are happy to leave the group and go solo or to take off for the hills with the bunch. About the only thing they don’t want to do is walk around in front of the dog.

The outrun is in excess of 500 yards with the gathers often taking 6 or 7 minutes. The turn around the post can easily take two minutes and in some unfortunate cases even longer. As each day has progressed this has all occurred in the hot sun with a strong wind. It’s a great dog trial but very hard. It’s not uncommon for the sheep to be 100 yards off the fetch line.

Dave Imas had a great run this morning. His dog made the sheep happy to mosey around the course. They made the near impossible look easy. Joe and I ran in the late morning. The sheep were very disrespectful and Joe was not amused. He was a very good boy, though. He likes to take charge on the top end. An issue we often fight over. On this occasion I let him have his head and he did nice work, getting the sheep to the fetch gates on a reasonable path. The rest of our run was pretty good and we ended up 4th with no pen. I chickened in the face of a fight between him and one of the ewes who’d been trying him for twelve minutes, a fight I knew he’d win and I would lose. I opted for the coward’s path and didn’t really try for the pen.

So Amanda and Dorey are in with a very fast and dramatic run from yesterday. I’m in with Joe and Nan. Nan ran very well, first up yesterday. Tonight is the handler’s dinner where we will draw our spots for the semi final. Thirty of us run tomorrow for twelve slots in Sunday’s double lift. Wish us luck.