Falcon Flight Path: Sheep and Sheepdogs

After the Christmas-New Year’s holidays, we began to get ready for the Texas Sheepdog Association’s Winter Sheepdog Trial Series. This begins the year for us, and is an intense period of events during the early part of the year. The weather can be iffy, if not terrible, and the sheep…well, every set used at the trials is different. It’s a challenge for dogs and handlers alike.

This year, I’m trialing three dogs, 6-year-old Bo, 4-year-old Dutch, and 10-year-old Cody. They posed earlier today, with Rue, in a patch of bluebonnets in our pasture.

We have been practicing on the "sheep sisters," thirteen Katahdan-Dorper cross ewe lambs that we bought in November from Paul Holland. They are fat and sassy, and give the dogs a workout. During the day they hang out in their sheep pen west of the house, chowing down on hay and using their protein/mineral lick tubs.

During the day, they are let out to graze (or trim the brush) when the dogs and I are not working them.

We began the trial season by our annual visit tot the vet to get Bordatella and other shots for the dogs,

then, on January 13 we competed at the Fort Worth Stock Show Sheep Dog Trials. The boys all posted respectable numbers, but didn’t win any prizes. We enjoyed the visit with Allan and Jef and the McElhanys, though, and had a great time.

On January 15, the farm had its annual few inches of snow, along with 12 degree temperatures. It didn’t last long, though.

Cody, Bo, and Dutch dusted off their manners , and on January 22 we drove to nearby Meridian to make a presentation to the local 4-H club. We discussed dogs in general, and herding dogs in particular. The boys were perfect gentlemen, showing off how they are obedient and respectful under all circumstances.

On February, Dutch and I brushed up on our teamwork at Faansie Basson's handling clinic held on his place in nearby Hico. Faansie is a world-renowned sheepdog handler, and has competed in, and often won, most of the major trials in the US and many internationally. He and his wife, Elmarie, are among the most gracious people I know, and I'm grateful to be able to work with him.

Terri Carver and Lyric are shown below getting their split.

Our first trial was the Ashcraft Ranch SDT in Stephenville, held February 9-12.

As you can tell by the way Angie Coker-Sells is dressed, early February was as expected, cold. I retired Cody from his open run because he couldn’t find his sheep. He didn’t fare any better on his second. Dutch and Bo, however, did better. Both got numbers, and Dutch’s 69 earned him a fifth-place finish and enough points to move him from the open ranch to the open class. His first open run was going well until a sheep tried to escape and he grabbed a leg to prevent it. Bo got numbers in his second open ranch class, and we moved on.

Friends did better. I enjoyed watching, among others, Charly Kronberger and Cindy; Ron Burkey and Dutch's son, Frio; and Les Hale and Dutch's daughter, Bette.

Ashcraft was followed the the next weekend by the Junction Trial on the Pecos Trail. Again, we had a mixture of hot and cold days, with more than a little wind to blow our whistles away from our dogs. Dutch got a respectable 61 in his second open outing, and Cody a 48. Open 2 saw numbers from both again…Dutch with a 68 and Cody a 54. Bo took a 13th in his first open ranch run, then took a fifth place in his second run to give him enough points to move up to open. That’s all good, but most trials only allow a handler to run two dogs in each class. Going forward, I will have to decide which of my dogs will compete in open.

Two more trials were on our schedule for the Texas Winter series. The Gatesville Sheep Dog Trial, held only 30 minutes from the farm, was next. I ran Dutch in both open trials, Cody in one and Bo in the other because of the two-dog limit. We didn’t do so well that weekend. Dutch and I weren’t on the same page with the sheep and each other, and he only posted scores of 37 and 42 out of 100…not good. Cody was DQ’d on his run, and Bo only posted a 40. We have lots to work on. Dutch was ready to go, though, as we waited our turn to run.

He is shown below trying to get a split on four ewes that certainly didn't like each other.

My friend, Terri Nicolau and Bree did a better job,

As did Faansie Basson, who sets the bar for all of us.

The final trial of the TSDA winter series was the San Saba Reunion Sheep Dog Trial put on by my good friend, Charly Kronberger and held February 28 through March 3. It was a great location, but the sheep left a lot to be desired. They were rented from someone who grazed them on his solar farms to keep the weeds and grass down under the solar panels. Even though they all grazed together, they were very diffenent. Some were white dorper ewes and lambs, and others were black-headed dorpers or “pinto” sheep. If you do much trialing, you soon realize that sheep that don’t look alike often don’t work well together. That was a challenge for all the dogs; those that drew sheep that were similar in appearance had a much easier time of it than those who drew mixed groups.

Here are some photos of Dutch rounding the post with one of those mixed groups. He was doing pretty well until just after this photo was taken. Just after they rounded the post, the big, spotted ewe that is trailing just fell over. The judge gave us a partial rerun because she was unsound and Dutch didn’t cause her to topple over.

However, his second set was no better and our score showed it. The big white ewe had a lamb in the exhaust pen, and she kept bleating and trying to escape and run to it. Dutch did his best, but she just wasn't going to play.

We had two days of cloudy, windy weather, then the rest of the weekend was sunny and hot. The boys and I didn’t do well. The first open run, Cody scored a 67, Dutch a 51 and Bo retired. The second, Bo posted a 34; I retired Dutch and Cody bit a sheep for a DQ. On top of it all, I came down with “something” that made me feel awful, but that wasn’t anything that would show up on the doctor’s exam. It took a solid month for me to begin to feel normal again.

The trial was an amazing success in other ways, though. I was able to spend time with Terry Murray, Mindy Bower and Alice Baker Meuten from Colorado, as well as with Terry Carver, who spent a couple of days with us between the Gatesville and San Saba trials.

I also was able to see four of Dutch’s offspring in action. The litter he sired with Jill Hefner’s Nan has four pups that are trialing and show real promise. This weekend, Les Hale ran Bette for a tenth place in Nursery 1 and first in Nursery 2 with a score of 85. She is an amazing young dog, and I can’t wait to see how she develops.

Ron Burkey’s Frio retired from his first nursery run, but placed 7th in his second with a score of 65 .

Terry Murray ran both her Pickle P and Mindy Bower’s Lush. Terry retired Lush from his first nursery run, but he scored a 58 in his second.

Pickle P was also retired her first nursery run, but took 5th on her second with a score of 68.

Pickle P and Terry also provided some excitement when one of the ewes they were attempting to pen tried to vault over the gate...not the most graceful leap I've seen.