After the nice low key trial at 80 Acres, it was time to move on to the main event. The Kingston trial at Grass Creek Park, is a well run spectator event. Thousands of people come each year to watch the dogs run. There are side events like the lumber jacks, dock dogs, birds of prey etc, but the main draw is the sheepdog trial.
The first two days, Wed and Thursday, the handlers have the park pretty much to themselves with an occ spectator, but on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the people come and come. The side lines and bleachers are full and people bring thier lawn chairs and the hill next to the field is full of people, cheering and clapping when a panel is made or the sheep are penned.
The sheep are the big draw for this trial. The sheep are brought over from Wapoose island, where they run free with very little human contact, have no predators and have never seen a dog. To say the least, these sheep are a real challenge!
The field itself is not a very large field, but it has many places where a dog or sheep will go into a dip and be lost from sight. Then there is the infamous Heartbreak Hill! The handler's post is set on the side of a berm, the judge is directly behind the handler on the top of the berm, if the dog or sheep get over the berm, they are out of sight of the handler, BUT not the judge. The exhaust is also behind the berm, where the sheep's buddies are more than happy to call to their friends out on the field!
To make it even more difficult, there are 2 posts. The handler must stay at the upper post and have the dog turn the sheep at the lower post, without the handler being able to help with the turn! For the second trial the judge did have us move to the lower post after we sent the dog, this in itself caused problems, because if the handler forgot to move to the lower post before the lift, 5 points were deducted!
This year there were around 140 dogs running! Competition was stiff. There is good day money to be won for the top winners of each 2 day trial. But the name of the game is to put 2 decent runs together to qualify for the double lift on Sunday, top 15 dogs with the highest combined scores run in the double lift. Alot of things factor in getting a decent run in, not the least being good dog and handler work! Good running is usually seen first thing in the morning, afternoon time is usually not a slot you want to see your name drawn for. This year if the wolf was sitting by the tree line in line with the cross drive panels, you were guaranteed a tight turn at the panels! But you didn't want to be running when the cocker spaniel was in with the sheep being held behind the tree line, as these sheep were baaing and there was difficulty with being able to hold sheep at the set out point.
Nick worked well, but the sheep beat us each time. His first run he had one sheep that just wanted to bolt all around the course, making lines difficult and then couldn't get her in the pen. His second run, the sheep left the top when he was about half way out on his outrun. Reruns weren't being given. The sheep went back over the hill where they were being set so I could not see where they were or what to say to Nick, so I just didn't say anything. I was very pleased when the sheep crested the hill at the exact spot they had been set, with Nick directly behind them. He brought them down the fetch and as we started to make the turn at the post, Nick met them at the top of the berm. 2 stood there and the last 2 turned around and tore ass back up the field. If I sent Nick for the 2 running up the field, we would have lost the other 2 over the berm to the exhaust. It was a no win situation and with not much of a score in the first go round, I retired.
Ben ran last in the first go round, he listened well around the course, got his pen and shed and ended with a score of 69. When I run Ben I tend to run him with Nick's sharp whistles, which swings Ben back and forth, as he is a much sharper flanker than Nick. But this time I was trying to avoid doing that with Ben and giving shorter, softer flank whistles and trying to remember his comebye whistle, which is different from Nicks! So not a great score, but at least a score to take into the next go round.
Ben's second run was about mid morning. The sheep had been running good all morning so was keeping my fingers crossed for nice sheep. Ben ran beautifully around the course, penned his sheep well, came in on his shed and had a score of 87! We were tied for first place! This tie held to the end of the second go round and a run off was in order. Ken Price had the other 87 and I went first in the run off. Again Ben ran well and we had an 83. Ken ran second, I did not see most of his run, and he finished with an 85 to take first place.
With a 69 and an 87 we had a combined score of 156. Enough to take overall
Reserve Champion for the trial! Amanda and Clive were overall
Champion. It was also enough to get us into the double lift on Sunday.
We drew the 9th slot for the double lift, first up after lunch. Compared to the nice humidity free weather we had had, Sunday was very humid and warmer. Ben has not been fit and usually comes up lame in his right front leg after running (old injury with a worn shoulder joint), so I wasn't expecting much in the double lift, especially after having to run twice the day before with the run off. The first outrun was to the left to pickup 10 sheep, with a dog legged fetch and then the drop at the post. Ben ran out well, stopped exactly where asked, and didn't shift over to the right as he tends to do. Our dogged legged fetch line to the fetch gates was good and we dropped the sheep at the post past the fetch gates. I flanked him comebye, gave him his hard stop and then look back. Which he initially took, but then started across the field instead of going back up the field. From where the turn back was set, the dogs could not see their second lot of 10 sheep. So I stopped him again with a hard lie down, look back and then an away whistle, and he turned back great and kicked out and picked up his sheep. He again stopped when I asked him to for a second dog legged fetch, keeping the second lot of sheep on line and not allowing them to rejoin the first group. They had someone keeping the first lot of sheep on the field for you, otherwise they would have been over the hill at the exhaust. I decided not to bring the second lot of sheep down the fetch line even with the first, as the first group would have been out of sight for the dog and I wanted to make sure Ben would turn off the second lot and flank over to where the first lot was at.
Ben flanked over nicely and picked up the first lot and rejoined both groups, now having 20 sheep to move around the course, and proceeded to bring them for the turn at the post. Turn was a little wide as when I gave him an away flank to stop the first part of the group he went behind the judges tent so the lead sheep drifted a bit further than I wanted, but not bad and then we started on the drive. I had seen in previous runs that the sheep were wanting to spread out and graze (with the wolf nearby and a sheep kill by the wolf the previous night on the field, they kept the sheep behind electronet with hay, rather than letting them on the field to graze overnight). My plan was to keep the sheep moving and tucked in. Had a nice driveaway to the first panel, slight wide turn at the panel, but quickly got the sheep back on line. Nice line to the cross drive panels and a nice tight turn, and then a gorgeous line to the shedding ring, with the sheep nicely bunched and moving along into the shedding ring, this leg of the drive saw most runs with sheep all spread out trying to graze.
All sheep into the shedding ring and we started to shed off 15 uncollared sheep, to leave the 5 collared sheep in the ring to be penned. I got one group off, but a collared sheep broke to it and Ben didn't get around fast enough to catch it. We cut out another group of 4 and at this point I could tell Ben was hot and tired. We never did get our shed and therefore didn't get the pen. Our total score for the 2 judges was 231 out of 360. Which was enough to place us 4th in the double lift. Bev and Hemp were 1st, Amanda and Clive 2nd, Bev and Mirk 3rd , and then we were 4th.
I went to Canada not expecting much from the dogs or myself and came away pleasantly surprised. Once the weather cools down some, I'll start training the dogs in earnest. The Virginia finals are a year away.
Shade
Slip
Dash
Pup 4, male, tri
