We left at about 5 am and made it there with plenty of time to walk the dogs and get comfortable before the Farm Trial started. I was pretty nervous as it was plain the sheep really where feeling the draw of where the trial sheep where being held. It started with a 200 foot outrun. Now I fully expected Rave to do the outrun. Not like the BC's who where entered, but a nice little outrun. Wrong. She started out very tight, even though I had positioned myself between her and the sheep. I stopped her and tried a resend with the same results, and once again. I should have really gotten after her at that point but it is a trial and you feel a bit inhibited so I didn't. I finally let her go with a less then stellar effort and she came in to tight and fast causing the sheep to veer off to the side field. There was a bit of chase and ugh before she got it back together and brought them to me. Not a stellar start. We then fetched them down to the arena and put the sheep through a series of pens, sorting off the collared ones with a gate sort, putting them back together etc. That went very smoothly. The best of the day. Then proceed to a trailer load and unload. That went okay. I had to go into the trailer with Rave to keep her tight on the wall so the sheep wouldn't bust as they came out but we got'er done. She covered nicely as they came out of the trailer preventing the sheep from bolting back to where the holding pens for the set out where. She also did that the best of the day. But now is where it gets a bit dicey. The draw was strong and the sheep where all bolting. Rave was able to keep going to head to prevent them from doing that but as we got near to the re-pen and I tried to stop her to let the sheep return to the holding pen one broke, and Rave went with it hot on its tail and hell bent for leather. After a bit of yelling and hollering we got it back under control, put the rest of the sheep up and as they say retired from the field. We did get a Q but it certainly wasn't the run I had envisioned!
My training buddy and I went out to dinner that night after wandering a bit to an Outback. Mr Garmin got us there but we where sure doubting him. We discussed our plans and goals for tomorrow. She entered her young dog in Started Sheep FEO. This will be the first time they will be under the pressure of a trial atmosphere and we where both excited to see how they would handle it.
Now I had been worried about the cattle as in the past they had used some good sized calves that had been used in rodeos for roping. They didn't turn off a dog well and tended to go their own way, which for the most part was separate and straight. Well at the last minute that supplier fell through and they got some very sweet calves to work. They where young and would turn off a dog nicely. Of course they where capable of lightning fast kicks that where pretty high. The sheep and ducks where excellent as usually in Utah. Your dog had to be right but these stock didn't try to break at the first opportunity, they stuck together nicely. All of our runs went well. Rave was a little resistant on taking my command to come out on the cross drive to keep the line straight to make the second panel which continued into Sunday. And as usual I did poorly on the center obstacle turning what should have been a perfect chute into a bit of a swirl. But again we got it done. The cattle worked well on Sat. and we had no problems getting 2 Q's and I moved Rave up to advanced cattle on Sunday.
Colleen, who was stock handling, invited us to her home for a steak dinner on Sat. night. There had been an agility seminar going on there and she was hosting the clinician. It was fun and the food was great.
On Sunday we had a center pen instead of a center chute. On all stock I did not do it as well as it should have been done. My timing is just not right and I am not real clear on how to get the stock from the second panel to the center for a settle. But we got them in. The calves where very logy and I had to ask Rave to heel them, which she was more than happy to do. On her first heel she was caught by surprise at how fast these little guys could kick and she got clocked. She came back mad but I was able to stop her from a second heel which would have caused a mess. After mudging around the pen a little, as I didn't get the gate open in time for a clean pen we got them in, took them out and re-penned them. The second run was a repeat of the first one. Two Q's and we had our WTCH!
Goals, Plans, Accomplishments
- WTCH!!!!
- Continue to try to understand free standing penning
- Work on holding the line on the cross drive
- Let Rave work, don't control so much
- Get the stop dependable
- Be consisitant
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