Lori: good boy, Will!

Day 1 of Soldier Hollow- anxious to finally get started. William was up 6th so I only watched a few runs before I had to walk back to the hsndlers’ area to get him. The course time is 13 min on a packet of 5 sheep. Nearly everyone sends left & the dogs have to negotiate some scrubby terrain to get up to the sheep. Will didn’t listen well at the top– where listening well is fairly critical as the sheep try various tricks like splitting, swirling back to the set out, and breaking for the ruins of an old abandoned cabin. Many stop whistles & verbal threats later, we got our group back on line to make the fetch panels. Our turn & drive out went smoothly & although I had to grouse at Will more than my normal amount of yelling at him to get a steady, our cross drive line was good. Had a little bobble just in front of the cross drive panels, but saved it. Quick shed & surprisingly, got a pen after some work. Our 78 held up for quite awhile until Amanda had a very smooth run with Monty for an 88, which Virgil Holland tied late in the day.

So, William advances to Monday’s double lift. I am thrilled with my boy.

Went out to dinner with a fun group. Really nice to put names with faces.

Will have nearly the whole day off tomorrow as Matt doesn’t have his first run until the end of the day. I’ll look forward to checking out the many vendors and other festival goings on.