Dog Trial Marathon #1

We loaded the RV, hooked up and on April 25 we were on our way.  Bit and Tess settled into the cave underneath the jackknife sofa, and Bo, Dutch and Meg were comfortable on top.  

Our destination for the first leg of the Dog Trial Marathon was Bridget Strang’s beautiful Strang Ranch just outside Carbondale, Colorado, for the Strang Ranch Spring Sheep Dog Trial.Our travels took us across West Texas, with stops in Snyder and at Coyote Keeth’s RV Park outside Clayton, New Mexico.  It has been so far pretty dry, but that didn’t stop this patch of prairie verbena from putting on a show.  

We made our way north through the Texas Panhandle, then across New Mexico past familiar landmarks,

then into Colorado where we stoped for the night in the lovely town of Leadville, elevation 10,154 feet!  Our campsite was the park where soccer fields and the rodeo arena share a parking lot.  No frills, no hookups, but an overnight accumulation of several inches of snow.

There was some white-knuckle driving on John’s part, but we crossed the Front Range of the Rockies, and dropped down into beautiful Glenwood Canyon.

The road construction which squeezed westbound lanes down to one didn’t help our Canyon experience, but did slow traffic enough that John could enjoy some of the views.  The tunnels funneled us toward Glenwood Springs and then we turned south back toward Strang Ranch and got our first glimpse of the mountains that overlook the ranch.  

Once we arrived, we had a beautiful view of Mount Sopris.And here we are, parked in one of the most beautiful spots imaginable.

The weather has been beautiful, warm days, and very chilly nights.  Each morning we work to see the icicle fairyland produced by the wheel line overnight.

This trial is a great opportunity to work dogs because it allows a dog to have 3 open class runs available instead of the usual two.  Because of the large number of dogs entered, each there were 4 open classes, and each dog ran three times in one of the 4 open classes.  Confusing, right?  Meg and Dutch both ran in Open 1; Dutch ran in Open 2, Meg ran in Open 3 and Dutch in Open 4.  

Our scores were nothing to write home about.  Dutch placed 14, 21 and 22 in his three runs, and Meg got a 32nd, with two retires.  We had a wonderful time, though.  There were 58 or so dogs in the Open class, so the competition was stiff.  The fields are beautiful and green, with plenty of challenges especially on the hill field.  The sheep were tough range ewes, and gave the dogs challenges of their own.  

Here are a few photos from our visit.