Spring is in the Air

Yesterday it definitely felt like spring.  Not shirt sleeve spring but jacket spring and the hope of warmer weather to come.  Got out to Roy's for our second lesson since fall.  I really enjoyed it.  The baby goats where so cute.  We were hoping the goat in labor would produce some brand new kids for us before we left but it didn't happen.  There was some worry that all might not be going well with the nanny so they were keeping a close eye on her.

Rave did a great take pen to start out.  She didn't quite hug the walls but as this is a big take pen it wasn't necessary.  She held up on her own and waited for the sheep to come out of the corner, did a mini flank to straighten them out for a straight line out the gate.  Checked up and let them flow out and did a nice cover.  All without command.

We had a pretty nice drive down the fenceline on the right side.  She needed one correction to move further out on her stock and then started self correcting.  Needed a few reminders to slow down.  Put them through the first panel and then she wanted to hold them there.  She wouldn't take her away.  It took some doing but finally she did let the sheep come out and took them on the cross drive.  She didn't quite hold it, letting them drift out, and I needed to direct her to push them back toward the rear of the arena to make the second panel.  We were working 5 sheep and one skimmed due to letting them come to far forward on the cross.  Made the turn for the chute.  A little difficulty with the chute as she was not squaring and was flatting out on the back side.  So she pushed the sheep out.  At least now I am seeing what is causing the problems.  It was a long hard struggle for me to figure out how to work the center.  I am still a long ways from good but at least now I don't feel quite so out to sea with it.  Of course all my mistakes and misunderstandings have lead Rave to some weakness there.  As the saying goes, how they learn it first they will always fall back on.  And in my early days I thought speed was needed.  Go figure.  And as Rave loves to run she was more than willing to give me speed.  ;-)

Second go, Rave was working well.  We always have a bit more trouble driving down the left side and I needed to remind Rave to not let the sheep drift out.  And we worked on the center.  Setting it up so that if Rave did not release the pressure and give ground to the sheep they would miss the chute.  After a couple of times she executed pretty well.  Stayed wide on the back side but was still not squaring out at the start of her outrun.  Need to work on that one.

I had a great time.  It was good to get out and train on more challenging sheep and great to have some dry weather and blue skies!