Gem State Herding AHBA Trial

Well, our trial was this past weekend. The weather was nice (a bit too warm for some of us), the people were great, the food was a hit, and a very nice weekend overall. The sheep were kinda nutty on Saturday, but settled in nicely on Sunday. Zip had a very nice duck run on Saturday, although a little pushy, but handled it well. His ranch course run ... left plenty to be desired. Part of that was due to the fact that the sheep had never been through the footbath ... with water in it. So, after several attempts at that obstacle, we moved on ... but it set the tone for the whole run. We got the job done, but it wasn't as pretty as it could have been.

On to the HTAD course. Zip's run was pretty nice. Again, pushy, but nice. Got all of our obstacles, had a nice drive, nice pen. I also ran Echo and Skar on this course in level I. Skar's a little easier to run, as she just has a lot of eye and balances naturally. Echo is a little more ... umm ... interested. ;-) Good stuff, though. The upcoming Shannahan clinic will do us a world of good, I'm sure.

For Saturday, overall, Zip took 1st place on HTAD III ducks, HRD III sheep (qualifying run, but not high enough for a point), and HTAD III sheep. Skar took 1st place HTAD I, and Echo took 2nd place HTAD I. Zip took High in Trial and came home with some nice ribbons. :-)

Sunday was a bit different of a set up. Janie was judging, so I was not running competitively in anything. We did the trial first, did awards, and then Janie and I went back and did our own runs. There were a few people that stayed till the bitter end and helped us setting stock and cleaning up, etc. Saw a lot of nice nice runs today, as the sheep settled down a bit. Zip worked very nicely for the most part, had three runs, all qualifying for championship points. So Zip now has his AHBA Herding Trial Championship (HTCh.). I didn't run Echo or Skar Sunday. It was too hot, and the day too long.

I still only have lambs at my house. Janie will bring me by some adults on Sunday so I have a couple of working sets so I can practice. I am really looking forward to the clinic and for new ideas for what to do with Echo. She's a fun one to work ... if I only felt like I knew what I was doing! LOL

That's all for now. I don't know if anyone caught any photos of any of my runs over the weekend, but I am at their mercy. I didn't have time to take photo one. Oh well. A good time was had by all!

Happy Tails!