On the River SDTrial

I went south across the border about an hour for this stunning site of a stockdog trial. This dairy farm is awesome for holding a trial and one of the best in the country according to judge Jack Knox. And we lucked out with good weather both Sat. & Sun. Dirk's sheep always challenge dogs and take advantage of every little weakness but when dogs are right, they respond in kind. The tall wet grass had us all flummoxed on Sat. - Open dogs as much as P/N and Nursery. The 6:45a start time was delayed at least 45 mins due to the heavy mist/fog that hid fetch and drive panels but when the sun rose it was burned off. However the early runs had pretty tough going - like me in run#3 - retired after a cross-over and not listening on the first drive leg. However the good handlers & experienced dogs like Gayle's Meg followed me with a top 5 run. But most of us got a better handle on things Sunday; I had the best run of our lives in Open with Blair - a 10th place with a 77 & no pen but only 3 points off our drive! The drive had been the nemisis of many runs all weekend; good dogs not able to push past the drive panel or stalling on the cross-drive - not hearing and retreating to instinct to head sheep and bring back to handler time and time again. Only 16 out of 36 runs got a score on Sat. and less than 6 got to the pen. So I was thilled with our Sun. drive - and too cool - only two other dogs had drives equal and both were Blair's littermates Ceri and Patch!
Nursery Jayne could not handle the big distance either day; her outruns were beautiful but things went to h@ll after that. As Jack said, I need to get a hold of her at the top! LOL Nursery started the day on Sun. and there were only two scores but both had timed out on the drive. My good friend, Jeff Marroni and Dusty's niece, Carmen won the class with Gayle and Leah 2nd.
I stayed over Mon. to watch the Double Lift and ended up using Dusty to hold the drop-off group of sheep from going to the exhaust if need be. Lucky for me, Jack said I could do it from the handlers' tent as it rained on and off throughout the day. So we only had to step out into the wet for a few mins. each run. ;-) As mentioned, this was one TOUGH double lift; there was no way dogs could see the second set of sheep in the tall grass. So it was pretty amazing that any dog got back there to find sheep! Due to the time that section took, everyone timed out in the shedding ring. Although Cheryl and Jett came SO close to getting their last split of three.....and Pearse struggled with a single left but came oh so just about getting her off as well.
Dirk & Sonya are putting on another trial at this location in July which should be outstanding with the hay off the field! This gorgeous dairy farm is one of the best sites for a trial in the PacNorWest; the trial field with a 500 yd. outrun was merely the center of two other fields on either side which could also allow similiar size trials. In addition there is another field of same size to the west parallel to this one! All of this borders the South Fork of the Nooksack River with trails and wide open places to run our dogs.
Some of the W.A.S.H. directors and handlers were talking to Dirk about the possibility of holding a training/fun day on this field some time this summer which would be an incredible opportunity to practice in such a great space. Keep eyes open for updates on that....
Check out Kristi's and Diane's great photos on; http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.php?showtopic=24206

But here are a few that I took Fri. evening just before sunset: