BevLive: the main event

The main event at last. Worked my dogs very briefly this morning at Geri's. They were great. I'm as ready as I'm likely to be, so let's get this going.

We pulled out of Geri's at 8:00 and after the necessary camper stop for water and dumping arrived at the Final's field at 10:00. At noon I met with the rest of the Finals Committee and we spent some time agonizing about how to lay out the course for the double lift on Sunday. Since we didn't yet have enough information for any final decision on that front, we laid out the open and nursery courses and felt quite pleased with both of them.

The open field is a freshly cut alfafa field about 650 yards long and 400 yards wide. The whole thing tilts down hill from left to right slightly and has several pretty good hills on the left-handed side as the dog would run out. The set out pen is in the right hand corner at 650 yards, so a non-factor for the 425 yard preliminary runs. The course was set with the handler's post on a hill on the right side of the field. The shedding ring is off the hill on a flat piece of ground to the left, with the pen between the post and the ring. We will shed any two (running 4 sheep), then pen. A very straightforward course.

The sound appears to be okay. They ran somedemonstration runs at 4:00 this afternoon and the dogs seemed to have no trouble hearing.The big concerns at this point are that the sheep are on the fat side and we expect record heat tomorrow.

Scores will be posted every few runs on the handlers website www.usbcha.org

so check there. I run Hemp in the morning. I don't think Amanda runs until Wednesday.  (Editor's note: Not true–Amanda runs Clive on Tuesday.)

So far it looks as if this will be another of the well organized events we have come to expect from Geri and her crew. There seem to be about a hundred campers here and a thousand dogs.