After settling in at Brian and Terri’s, we and th dogs began getting used to the altitude (almost 7300 feet), which is quite different than what we have at home (just over 1000 feet). We did have a bit of a transition; the altitude at the Frio Dew Memorial Sheep Dog Trial was just over 4000 feet, so we were able to step up gradually.
The weather here has been unseasonably wet and cold; the locals tell us they have had much more rain than usual. And, we have been in heavy jackets most mornings until the last couple of days. But, by mid-day it is usually beautiful, and the sunrises, sunsets and cloud formations are remarkable.
I was late submitting my entries for the Table Top Sheep Dog Trial which was held last weekend. As a result, Dutch was only able to run once. He had a beautiful outrun, lift and fetch on some very tough and wily range ewes. He lost no points off his outrun, only 1 off his lift and 8 off his fetch. Unfortunately, after taking his ewes through the drive-away panels, he had trouble keeping them on-line for the cross-drive. The sheep were determined to return to their overnight pen, and kept splitting and going in different directions. Several times, Dutch put them back together, but apparently couldn’t hear me very well because he kept trying to bring them back to me instead of continuing to the cross-drive panels. Reluctantly, I retired. Here are some images from the trials. Thanks, Terri N for the video of Dutch's run.
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Dutch and his sheep rounding the bucket |
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Terri N and other spectators on the Ranch course |
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Meg plotting her strategy |
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The very challenging Open course |
Meg was able to run both Ranch (we usually call them Open Ranch) courses. The sheep were just as cantankerous, but the courses were shorter. I made some mistakes in handling her on her first run. That, combined with the fact that she was really revved up, made it pretty ugly, and we retired. She had a nice go on her second run, placing 10th out of 25 dogs with a score of 68. She hasn’t often seen sheep as tough as these, so I was very proud of her. Here are a few pics pulled from videos of her runs. Thanks Jennifer Boznos and Terri Nicolau for videoing us.
We will be here until the upcoming UhOh Ranch Trial next weekend. In the meantime, I am having a great time working sheep here at Kyon Ranch and doing lessons and training with Terri Carver and Terry Murray just down the road.