Knotty Pine Ranch: No ... thank YOU!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

No ... thank YOU!

Katy, Ellie and I headed out to the trial this morning. There was snow on the ground in Boise, but as soon as we passed through Nampa, the snow disappeared. We had a feeling though that we hadn't seen the last of it.

We were right.

The day started out with a light breeze, that turned into a little bit of snow, and then the wind kicked up. It was about 27 degrees for the most part. Everyone dressed warm, braved through it, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves despite it. The laminated (I keep typing "lambinated") running orders were again a big hit. Katy, thank you again for your help with this. I couldn't have done it without you. Brought some firewood for the burn barrel, and it seemed to last all day.

Met some nice people this weekend, re-acquainted with some I haven't seen in a while, and chatted with some who I was at the clinic with recently. I learned a ton and enjoyed it all.

I worked the pens at setout for open with Susan, while Don set with Blue. Great experience, and very interesting conversation. Went back down to my truck and thawed while watching pro-novice, chatting with Katy and Ann, eating horseradish cheese, and sipping an ice cold Corona.

Then nursery started. I was up second. I slingshot Echo again on the comebye side. Her outrun was nice, she again came up short, and I was able to talk (ok, yell!) her around. And here come the sheep. Full boar. We missed the center panel. Gee really? Echo pushed a bit, and one sheep split off. Bobbled that but was able to recover. The turn around the post was ok ... nothing to write home about. The drive to the first panel was not pretty but effective. The turn into the crossdrive happened! I am absolutely at a loss at this point. My nerves were shot. I didn't know my left from my right, but was able to get the sheep in the same county as the second drive panel, and while we missed the panel entirely, Echo took her away flank nicely and we were headed to the pen. Until ... !!!! That ewe broke off again. I screamed a bunch of commands that wouldn't have meant anything to anyone, and Echo had had enough of me, my shitty handling, and that bitchy ewe, so off she went to show that ewe who was boss. "Thank you!" says the judge. I couldn't have been happier! I know that sounds odd, but one of the things I love about this little dog is her hootzpah. I couldn't help but laugh. I'm sure that was a combination of feelings.

Despite the trainwreck ... so many things Dianne was trying to tell me are now making sense. This was an experience I needed in order to move forward in my training. Trialing is much different than practice ... you only get one shot at it and the pressure is on. I'm glad I have this one under my belt and two more coming up.

I also want to thank Susan for her patience with me in setout in teaching me a ton. I hope I have the opportunity to work with her again. And thanks to Patrick and Rueben for hosting a great trial! Results will be posted soon. In the meantime, here are some photos.

Here are the bleachers. (Note how dark the sky is, and on the left side, you can see it snowing in the distance.)

When the wind wasn't blowing, here's where you found people.
The other set of bleachers

SnowmAnn!

Here's Echo's sire -- Don Helsley's Blue. This dog is, by far, the hardest dog I have ever tried to photograph. Of the 50 or so photographs I have over the last few months, I do not have one in focus. Here are today's attempts.
Handsome boy