Saturday, May 2, 2009

Shaker Village Day Two - Open

I went to a very nice dinner tonight at the Shaker Village dining room so I didn't get the scores for nursery. Sorry! I will post them, along with a nursery description tomorrow morning. Also, I forgot to mention that the judge is Annie O'Toole
As for the open class, it started with rain but it stopped shortly after noon and just stayed overcast with a temperature around 61 for the rest of the day. The sheep are still of good quality, but they have decided they like going up hills (of which there are several dips up and down on the drive lines) and they now KNOW where the exhaust is so things have gotten a little tricky. Scott ran Drift in the late morning and he ran a very good run and hit all his panels. He also had a good shed and pen and finished with a score of 86.
I ran Laddie next and I can breathe a sigh of relief because Lad is back to his old self. In fact, maybe better 'cause he had a clean outrun (Lad is a horrible outrunner). However, I was so afraid of him going back to his bad self of the last trial that I was handling him a little delicately and maybe lost a few points because of it. He made all his panels, perhaps despite me and had a decent shed and pen. His sheep really wanted to go to the exhaust so I panicked a little in the shed ring to try and avoid this. Fortunately, since he was back to normal, he handled my worry without panicking himself. His final score was an 83
Next Scott ran Maid who had an outstanding run.

Scott setting Maid up for her outrun
He did blow her out once on the outrun but the rest of the run was clean. She had a nice shed and held a fairly difficult ewe.

Maid holds her single
These sheep like the pen so if you stay out of their way, you can get a good points without working too hard. She ended up with a 92. - I guess I don't have alot of descriptions for Scott's two runs but there wasn't much bad to say about them. On mine, however...
Hemp ran next. After the problems we'd had at the last trial (him circling the sheep in front of the drive panels - while I got panel panic) we had been working on our drive. He has made big strides and had a very good run and listened to every whistle, even the quiet ones but since we were still training on our new methods, I couldn't go for broke on the run (we are working on control). Therefore, the drive turns and consequently the drive lines were not as good as they could be. He came in nice on the shed but since the sheep like to peel around you, he caught his single a little roughly and I had to yell LIE DOWN before we got a DQ. The pen was again easy and we got an 81.

OPEN Day one: (58 dogs)
1. Christine Henry and Rook
2. Connie Brannen and Peach
3. Scott Glen and Maid
4. Vergil Holland and Brooke
5. Virgil Holland and Dally
6. Mike Hanley and Moss
7. Paul Tucker and Rick
8. Mike Hanley and Streak
9. Lyle Lad and Shep
10. Jim Valley and Lita

1 comment:

Donna Brinkworth said...

I LOVE reading these descriptions! What a fantastic photo of Maid with the single! She looks awesome. Can't wait to read more!
Donna