BevLive: Meeker: the Finals

Exciting day. Amanda was up 4th with Ethel. They did a great job.

Ethel needed a couple of redirects on the second outrun and stayed tight until she saw her sheep. Both fetches were good, the first better than the second but solidly through the gates. The drive was very clean except for a little wobble at the tricky first gate. A very nice shed, which netted them the best shed prize, and a clean pen. Ethel came off the field looking quite fresh and performed perfectly all the way around. At one point in the shed a collard ewe broke with two uncollared and Ethel made a great save on the edge of the ring within inches of the discarded sheep. Lovely work by an old pro.

Tom ran 6th and had some fetch problems and lost his shed a couple of times and ended with a shed but no time to pen to come second.

Bill Berhow had a very nice trip around after the lunch break with Pete but no shed left him third.

Just came back from the victory dinner at the Old Rustic which is now a very nice Mexican restaurant. Interesting dog trialing custom that leaves the winner paying for the victory celebration but very generous of Amanda to treat us all.

This may well be Ethel's last season as she is ten and Amanda has Roz waiting in the wings. It was really nice to see her still running with such élan and reminding us why she is such a good bitch. Congrats to Amanda and Ethel both.

P. S.

In the excitement of yesterday's big Meeker win I forgot to mention the other great triumph of the weekend. Sandra Massie won the Novice arena trial at Meeker with Amanda's Monty. While this was a great job by both parties it was the more so for being Sandra's first trial. The deadly duo won $150 in their first outing.

We are off this morning to work sheep at our friend Ellen's, then on to Shurla Gurley's for more practice.