UhOh Ranch Spring Sheep Dog Trial

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Terri and Brian, load up and drive a short hour to Mindy Bower and Kevin Hall’s beautiful UhOh Ranch for their fantastic four-day Spring Sheep Dog Trial.  The four Open classes had about 48 dogs each, while the Nursery classes averaged about 18 and the Open Ranch about 24.  That's a lot of dogs, and handlers.  A few people were local, or were staying elsewhere, but we had quite a congenial crew parked along the road and tucked away in various nooks and crannies around the ranch.

Coordinating the classes running simultaneously on two fields took a lot of hard work.  Thanks to Terry Murray and Mike Lupow, who, along with Mindy and Kevin and countless volunteers, put it all together.  I’m grateful, too, to our judges, Bridget Strang, Susan Squires, Dave Imas, Mike Lupow, Connie Brannen, Maci McGraw, Brent Phelps, Laura Esterman, Terri Nicolau and Vickey Russell.  They did an outstanding job, under ever-changing conditions, and I am honored to be able to run my dogs under them.  

The courses, especially for the four Open runs we watched (two of them from the hillside above), were great fun.  They also gave everyone a lesson in watching their sheep.  As you will see from some of the following photos, it was almost impossible to see the dogs…and sometimes only the sheeps' backs were in view.  And, speaking of the sheep, furnished again this year by J.D. Schmidt, they were strong, healthy yearling ewes.  They were a challenge, but very uniform and gave the dogs an opportunity to do good work if they were on their toes. 

Here are some of the photos I took during the trial.  There will be more as I sift and sort, so stay tuned and come back for another visit soon.   

Kyon Ranch and Table Top Sheep Dog Trial

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.

The weather didn't keep us from working dogs, or from outings like the one to South 40 for scrumptious burgers, beverages and desserts.

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.

Dutch and his sheep rounding the bucket

Terri N and other spectators on the Ranch course

Meg plotting her strategy 

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.  

Stay tuned for more adventures and pics from next weekend's UhOh Ranch Sheepdog Trials.