Sandhill Lea Trial

Here are some pix my traveling partner, Lynda took on the drive thru the beautiful Fraser Canyon. The salmon are running in record numbers so there were fishermen everywhere along the banks of the Fraser & Thompson rivers.
A threesome of kayakers take a break sitting on the rocks while our national railway heads to the coast. You can see how low the river is from the lines on the bank.
In the spring the water is above these rocks.
It is a beautiful scenic drive. I haven't been up this route in just over 10 years. I first traveled on it during construction in 1956 en route to our move to Bella Coola.
Starting at the end of the trial; Pro/Nov overall winners left to right; Lorne Landry(trial host & 3rd), judge Rob Lewis, Celeste Lacroix, Brian Nelson, Carol Nelson(no relation) and Tess Davidson.
Open overall: Ruedi, Rob, Carol, Lee, Gayle.
Owen, me & Marg watching before our P/N run.
dubbed the 'Rose Garden' after the first person to use this new addition to the Sandhill Lea Ranch buildings.
mandatory 'cuteness' picture; Dawn Pucci's daughter, Mari playing with Chance McLeod, a dwarf Border Collie.
our hard working crew at the set out pens; neighbors Judy & Maureen.
handler camp-city
the trial field looking up to set out. the road & terraine proved very tricky for a lot of dogs. The sheep are used to coming in at night up this road so they were very heavy to the exhaust to the right.
here is the flock grazing on Friday before the trial.
the exhaust and beautiful lake in the background taken from the spectator area.
our judge out sailing on Friday.
the Landry's house overlooking the lake and trial field.
Lynda's Lark spotting sheep before her P/N run.
Lee's Toss looking for sheep before her run.
Josh, Sam & Bruce exhausted sheep for us all weekend.
Blair and I in the shedding ring on Sunday. It started off raining and windy in the morning but cleared up by noon. Off & on clouds but quite nice when the sun came out. We timed out in the shed after getting a very nice pen.
handlers walking the course for P/N on Sat. morning. Novice ran first, followed by P/N at 10am; over 30 runs then 21 Open runs that finished JUST before dark at 8pm.
Lee & Jeb nailing a win in P/N.
Brian Epp with one of Blair's grand daughters making a good pen.
Margaret and Kane get their pen.
Lorne and Jace making a nice turn at the post for a placing in P/N.
Lynda's try making a tight turn at the post. Right behind Try and to the right was a little dip-ditch with some big rocks which made the turn very tricky.
Lynda shuts the gate at the pen. Yay Try - his best weekend to date!
What a fun weekend & great trial! I am happy with the progress my 2 young dogs are making and can see we have lots yet to work on. Blair had a good day but my handling cost him. He also needs a little 'come to jesus' meeting regarding what a steady whistle means and that pace on the fetch is not a 4-letter word to be avoided. ;-)
Most photos taken by Rose McLeod.

Thursday

What a difference a day makes; back to normal summer weather, tshirts & shorts. Got to McLeods' just after Deb & the JRTs did their duty in the chicken coop; Jacks=3, Ratz=0. lol I let Jayne out of the truck first and Crumbie was delighted by her hippyhop style of running around. So he chased her and amazingly she didn't attack him! ;-)
Margaret & I 'designed' an imaginary 'course' using the obstacles already set up in the field so that we could practice making panels and lines. It was good work to get ready for the trial this weekend. I worked all three trial dogs; Jayne, then Owen, then Blair. For some reason Jayne was slower taking commands than usual but kept her cool and head under some fast & furious flanking. The sheep were being very reactive with her until I sorted out ChocolateChip & Louise, then they settled better.
Owen did very well except he still takes a wrong flank with my come bye whistle at times. I know the first note often sounds just like my lie down whistle but that doesn't explain why he goes come bye instead of lie down. I plan to trust him at the top at this trial even if things look wild&wooly; I'll give him more time to sort it all out. IF he can get the sheep to my feet, the rest could go well.
Blair was his usual wonderdog self so it is as always, just up to me to step up and handle him better. My job is to read the sheep better, see the lines better and communicate better. It will be a small trial with only 22 Open dogs but a pretty big P/N class. There were originally 35 P/N dogs but 5 or so have dropped out. My friend Julie can't come now as 2 of her 3 dogs have injured their pads. So we are changing our Fri. nite dinner plans and instead of meeting Julie & France at our motel to go out for dinner, we are pot lucking with Marg & Tony at the trial field. It will be nice to visit the Cariboo again; it has been quite a few years since I have been up there or driven the pretty Fraser Canyon route. I love that country of sage brush & pine, horses and cattle, cowboys & ranches....much like Alberta but without the attitude. JK AB friends!!! LOL
I am packing my entire closet as the weatherman cannot make up his mind what it's going to do; I check it one day and it says possible rain, check the next day & it is just mixed sun/cloud, check again today and now it is back to possible rain on Sunday. Plus it will be 25c tomorrow and down to 15c on Sat, 13c on Sun. and they don't have a clue what Monday will bring; mixed sun, cloud possible showers = 'we just don't know'. ;-) Glad we are moteling not camping or worrying about getting towed out of mud like at the Westerns.
I WILL take pix this weekend!

Tuesday

A shock to the system today; record breaking rainfall for August. We got more rain today than we've had ALL summer. Otherwise the driest summer on record. I dug out my winter coat and rain gear to go to McLeods' & phoned Margaret before I left to make sure she wasn't backing out. We got there within a few mins. of each other, Rose brought us coffee, we sat in the garage aka 'family room' watching it rain harder & harder. Then Margaret offered to buy us lunch - Rose & I leaped at the chance. So we piled into my truck much to Wyatt's delight(at sharing his back seat with someone who gave him a treat) & headed off to the WhiteSpot in Aldergrove. I guess a lot of others had the same idea because it was packed. The waitress seated us, informing us that she would 'try' to find us knives but they were experiencing a shortage! LOL
We got back to McLeods' but decided to give the sheep a break and not pull them out of the barn to work in the pouring rain. In other words, we wussed out. ;-) So another day of no pix. The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow and be back to normal for Thurs. So we WILL work dogs that day for sure. Then off to the SandHill trial on Fri.

Sunday

Pam hauled her sheep to 192 St. today. Just Bill, Lynda & myself were there so we got lots of time to work our dogs. I did a couple outruns with Blair; he was sticky on releasing the pressure to flank and hold the line of the fetch so we spent some time working on that. Jayne worked like a dream; her usual great outruns, decent lifts, not bad pace on the fetch and held the line like a magnet. Did some driving later too and she handled that well also. Hope this 'nice' works holds out next weekend at the SandHill trial. ;-) Owen faltered on his outrun; stopped to check out the 'doggy' soccer ball that was left out on the field but took the redirect. His lift and pace is too pushy at this bigger distance. Like his daddy at his age, he is burning to get them back to his comfort zone before he will take a lie down. So lots to work on there. He did some good driving also with very nice pace.
Lynda did some very good driving work with both Try & Lark. They are both outrunning nice and listening on the fetch. We both still have the picture of Alastair's P/N fetch and try to keep his distance off the sheep in our minds....
No pix but you can always just go back in the archives to see this big field. It was a beautiful day with mixed sun & cloud plus a nice breeze to keep it warm but not too hot. The field was mowed awhile back and is very burnt, dry yellow. We enjoyed a beer at the end while watching Pam driving with her young dogs on the whole group of sheep.

Lacamas

These are all 'scenic' shots so don't expect much. This is looking from where our pals are camping towards the rest of the camping area and the trial field beyond. Shows all the room to run dogs in the middle.
Pretty sunset on Thurs nite. Same direction as previous pic but later at nite.

Looking back east from the P/N field to the Open field with Mt.Hood in the distance.
The Open field from the P/N

the P/N judges' tent and exhaust by that tree.
just a pic of us parked out at P/N. We parked up on the hill overlooking the field & were able to catch a bit more breeze.
Looking down at the P/N campers
Wyatt was tied out for awhile.....
Our campsite beside Marroni's
Next door neighbors...Rob & Mary
Bri & Celeste getting set up; took them awhile to find a level spot that was shady...

Our evening hang out
apres trial; our motel and parking spot with nice field to run dogs
shhhhhhsssssssssssssssgodoggssss
Lynda loading

Heat Wave last week

Some backyard/deck pix from the heat wave last weekend....