Report from Whidbey Island trial

Hi all!
FYI:
Alison wrote up the results for the Whidbey Island trial and I want to
thank her for doing it!!!
If you need break downs from your runs or your final score, please
contact Susan Crocker at ezecho@whidbey.com
I don't have the score sheets so I can't help you.
Looking forward to seeing you all on the 23rd and don't forget the last
one at Susan's on Feb. 7th!!!
We are getting quite a few entries for our next trial, days are getting
longer, but sheep will be fewer.... we start lambing on this coming week
end! So if you want to run at MacDonald's in two weeks,get your entries
in to me ASAP!
Sue McDonald




*From:* Alison Deilke
*Sent:* Monday, January 11, 2010 12:47 PM

*Subject:* Whidbey Island trial results

We lucked out once again weather wise for Sunday’s trial. Lani Dorman
came down from Canada to judge and, in true Canadian style, threw in a
tough dog leg fetch for the Open handlers. The dog leg fetch proved
difficult but doable for both dog and handler, once we figured out that
you can’t hold the sheep hard on set out in the direction they are
supposed to go on the dog leg fetch. LOL Thanks for pointing that out
Sue. A couple of re-runs, a minor adjustment in the set out and the
trial was under way. I was lucky to be at set out when the first open
dogs ran. This was a great vantage point to see how the dogs and
handlers worked the first part of the fetch, which was against the
strong draw back to the pens.

One team handled it near perfectly with a score of 91. Ron Green and
Tigr, owned by Hope Harris, laid down one of the prettiest runs I’ve had
the pleasure of seeing. Congratulations, on your first Open win Ron.

Results for Open class

1: Ron Green and Tigr

2: Charmaine Henderson(Canada)and Reo

3: Heidi and Pete

4: Diane P. and Nan

5: Brian R. and Doc

6: Diane P and Roo

7: Sue Mac and Jan

8: Diane P and Scott

9: George Mac and Chris

10 Brian R and Mig

11 Diane P and Lucy

12 George Mac and Huck

13 Ron Green and Kane

I got to scribe for the Pro-Novice class, giving me a different
perspective of the field. Most of the teams were pretty successful
dealing with the draws and the re-active sheep. I really enjoyed
watching the different penning techniques people use. The highlight of
the class for me was watching Susan and Zen, ( we all know how Mom
complains that Zen is so slow )J

Well I was biting my nails when they got to the pen, and had not timed
out yet, the sheep were almost in the pen…I felt like yelling, “Mom just
slam them in there and shut the gate!” as the timer ticked down 3,2,1
seconds…I think poor Lani really hated calling time because it was such
a nice run. Low and behold, Susan and Zen won the class anyway, in spite
of no pen points. Janet and Scott had a very nice run, too, coming in
second place. I don’t know a lot of you very well, but I could sure tell
the seasoned handlers from the nervous beginners while scribing for this
class. Dick Wilson and Raygan are continuing to improve, …Dick, relax !


Pro-Novice Results

1: Susan C and Zen

2: Janet T and Scott

3: Corinne B and Tay

4: Jo- Roach and slider

5: Sue Mac and Jackie

6: Dick W and Raygan

Ranch class had a little bit longer out run and drive than we have had
at the past few trials. This didn’t seem to bother the dogs too much.
Most handled the sheep very well, and, though some may have retired, the
dogs were all trying very hard and are coming along nicely. In my
opinion it is better to retire than to have a wreck that may take months
of training to recover from.

Ranch Results

1: Diane P and Faye

2: Norm R and Lana

3:Ron F. and Steve

4: Kathleen T and Emma

All in all it was a fun trial. We want to thank Sue and George for all
their help. Lani for judging, Susan for providing a wonderful lunch, and
facility, Dave and Karyl in the pens, Dick tell your wife thank you for
the scones…yummy, and whoever brought the peanut butter cookies, too. We
look forward to more fun at the February trial.

Michelle Pardee has posted a number of pictures from the trial here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluegemdog/sets/72157623185514724/

Alison Deilke…Susan’s daughter and trialer in training


    And 'I'= Lani, might add:  Ali ran Susan's Kelpie, Zen as a non/compete in Ranch and would have won the class. 
Look out novice handlers, when this gal gets her own young Kelpie up & running, they will be a team to look out for!
Her pen with Zen was one of the prettiest of the day bar none Open or ... 
 As my first time to judge a trial, it was a fun experience.  Thanks to the small and informal entry which helped to alleviate my nerves.
I was determined to be consistent with all runs but ended up being overly tough on the drives I think....however I think the right dogs won looking back on the placings.
To be honest, I knew that Ron and Tigre had the best Open run of the day, but really had no clue how the other placings in all classes played out.
If I could have been tougher on my hostess, Susan(and Zen) I would have....to show 'no favoritism' LOL but....there was just no place to take more points off!  LOL
Luckily for me, the dogs that were out of their league a wee bit were pretty obvious and the dog that 'had them' also, so it made judging a lot easier.  I can't imagine how
one would judge a trial where you have 10 or more almost equally proficient runs....arrgh!  Thankfully that will not be in my near future!!!!!!!!
  And the bottom line:   would I judge again - yes.  I plan to spend more time on studying runs...do more scribing, and duh, hope to gain enough respect to be asked to judge...
but for all of you out there:
It was a good experience and as Sue McDonald says...."if you can run Open, you should be able to judge".  Plus another little bonus:  I think this will help
me understand how my runs are judged, which should make me train better.   My scribes were awesome all day - it wasn't til the last nonCompete run that I had a clue about how the timer worked.
And all three of them: Jo, Ali, & Charmaine made my job SO much easier!  I did my best to explain to them some of my opinions and seemed pretty successful by end of day.  I encouraged them to express
Opions and said I would explain my reasoning(s).  So I hope they had a positive experience too.