Knotty Pine Ranch: Brrr Bones Photos

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Brrr Bones Photos - Day 2

Well, what a fun trial! On Saturday, it was a bit chilly, but the wind was not blowing and it was quite tolerable. In the early afternoon on Sunday, the sun broke through and made for a gorgeous day! The sheep were pretty cooperative Saturday morning, but by Sunday evening, they had had enough. Can't blame them. Thank you, ladies.

The open course was about a 300 yard outrun, with a 2/2 split and two legs of the "Couch Cross." Pro-novice and nursery had about a 250 yard outrun, a "Couch cross" with no shed. Novice ... I was at the setout pens for novice ... for anyone who was at the trial ... can you please fill me in on what the novice course consisted of?

I'll post the results as soon as I have them.

As far as Echo's runs ... Saturday was a mess but we got through some of it. There were good pieces and not so good pieces. A good piece ... her outrun was lovely, her lift was nice. Her fetch was way too pushy, way off line, she was very sucked in, and I didn't know how to get a hold of it. But she got the sheep to me without being thanked. The turn around the post resembled nothing of a turn. We made the first panel, turned into the crossdrive, she went too high and I couldn't get her back, so she fetched the sheep to me. We turned it around and drove the to the other panel, and the sheep stood right in front of it. If I flanked her around to get her to correct it, she was going to grip, so I had her fetch them back to me. We got one leg of the "Couch Cross" before being called for time.

Sunday, she had a lovely outrun again. She went nice and deep behind her sheep. The sheep, though, lifted a bit prematurely (from what I could tell from the post) and it sucked her in, it was all pulled way over to the come bye side (the side we're having trouble covering), it got all squirrely, I thanked the judge and went out and gave Echo a whatfor.

This will all come together. I'm sure it will. We're getting there. There are small improvements each time. She didn't stop short on her outrun either day, although this was an away outrun. If the draw was on the other side, I would have sent her the other way. But she had no problem picking the sheep up off the handler. I was very comfortable with her at the cross and she was listening very well when she was close to me. We need to work on stopping better at the top, coming in with more pace, and then the inside flank from top to bottom (for lack of a better analogy ... from 12:00 to 6:00 on both sides, as opposed to the one from 9:00 to 3:00 and back) ... so I can save the crossdrive from turning into an "M".

Here's some photos:

Dianne Deal's Bett