AHBA Trial & a short stop at Heppner

We started out on the road about 7:00 a.m. to go to the AHBA trials in Western Washington at Fido Farms and Frog's Breath. Shortly into Oregon, a couple of us needed to pee. So we found a spot and it's where I took the first of many photos.







This is Janie, my very dear friend.





The view across the freeway:





The cows were not thrilled to see us ...





And were sure I was going to shoot them with my camera ...





The frost was still on everything.





Janie's chariot.





One of many shots taken while driving down the road. This was shot from the freeway, winding our way to Pendleton.





A shot of some random guy driving down the road.





A town named Echo!





The first rest stop. Mo and Echo played ...





And played ...













And played some more.





Found a cool spot for some portraits. Here's Echo ...





And Mo:





And Janie's dog, Roy.













Back on the road again, and Janie steps in as our wonderful tour guide. We head over the Columbia River to Stonehenge and Maryhill.























Inside Stonehendge:





Janie and Jaenne. Jaenne is the best! She kept Janie and I organized, and avoided us from leaving our belongings spread from Idaho to Washington. Thank you, Jaenne!





Mt. Hood





The day was gorgeous, and there was no wind! See?





Maryhill Museum





Some closeups:













Coming back over the bridge into Oregon, I took a couple of shots:









Here's the lady at the tollbooth. Yapping on the phone.









We stopped to eat lunch at Multnomah Falls. The restaurant was very nice, and the window we were sitting at was very clean -- clean enough, in fact, to take a photo right through it.









Got a few pix after lunch:

















The creek below the falls.





Friday night, we met Colleen at the motel in Chehalis, went out for a few drinks and to chat it up like girls do. We were all missing Katy, so the others started out with Lemon Drops, and I was into the Coronas ... and shots of Crown. Eventually, I convinced Colleen to drink what I was drinking, and before you know it, we were ten feet tall and bulletproof.



The next morning, the weather changed drastically. It was raining, windy, and oh so cold. But we arrived at Fido Farms around 8:00 a.m.







What an amazing facility! Chris Soderstrom did an awesome job turning this into a do-it-all facility. It's got pens, arenas, fields, indoor, outdoor, sheep, agility, off-leash dog areas, etc. Here's a couple of photos. I didn't take many of the competition itself, as it rained the entire day.



The barn we hung out in for the most part:





From what I understand, at one point, the property used to be a cattle ranch, but it was obvious there was some type of horse stuff going on. These stalls are great for keeping dogs.





View from the barn. This very sweet lady with her Beardies was a joy. I am horrified that I don't remember her name and will have to look it up. These Beardies were trained very nicely, and her handling of her dogs was beautiful. I really enjoyed watching their runs.









The judge (Janie) and her timer and scribe (one of which is Carolyn, aka BCXFour) are to be commended for sticking it out in the nasty windy cold weather under nothing but this tarp.





A view of a couple of the arenas...





One of the other structures people were watching the trial from. There was a better view from here.





This lovely old barn was another such spot:





This guy caught my interest. I'm not sure what breed he is, but he sure is cute.





One of the other rams.





Chris was amazing. She and her dog, Rose, set sheep all day long - standing out in the rain and wind with no cover, and never once complaining.





The judge and her dedicated helpers again.





This is one of the dogs who was helping in the pens, shucking sheep out to Chris as needed.





The trial was a lot of fun and it seemed everyone had a good time! Echo and I ran in Level III. The run started out tight and fast, and I wondered how I was going to make it through the entire course without a down. She was pushy and pushy and pushy through the part with all the pens. Once we got into the field where we had to do our drive, crossdrive, pen and shed, she loosened up and relaxed quite nicely and this part of the course was actually very pretty for us. Zero points off on the pen and shed, and very little off on the entire drive. We ended up with a 90, and 3rd place.



We went to dinner with Carolyn at this great restaurant in Olympia that served a really good Cider. Shared a pitcher of that (thank you, Carolyn!) while we chatted it up like girls do. It was a pleasure to meet her and nice to get to know her a bit while we were there. Carolyn, hopefully we'll run into eachother again soon.



Back to the hotel, and I crashed out pretty quick. Up early the next morning, and we headed out to Frog's Breath, where I judged all day. I did not take a single photo all day, but not from lack of desire. The weather wasn't nearly as bad, nearly as cold, or nearly as wet. The sun would shine and the hawks would fly between rain storms. And everything was green, green, green. Frog's Breath is another gorgeous facility that is set up perfectly for ranch course stuff, on top of being very effective for day-to-day stock management. This was yet another flawlessly run trial thanks to Barb Davenport, Elsie Rhodes, Chris Soderstrom and everyone who helped them!



Echo and I ran first under Elsie. We ran tight, we ran fast, we ran a lot, and we ran out of time. We showed everyone what not to do. Echo Monster lived up to her name.



The rest of the day ran smoothly and we left town by about 5:00 p.m. We headed back towards Pendleton, spending the night in some seedy little town (whose name escapes me, which is okay because I won't be going back there any time soon) in a very seedy Motel 6. Up fairly early the next morning, and made a quick stopover at the Heppner trial.



A view of the trial field.





Don Helsley was judging.





Got there just in time to see Dianne run Zorro. Apparently, the Heppner sheep have a reputation all their own. There is a very strong draw one way, and the dogs really needed to work to keep everything online.

























Scott Glen with Maid, maybe? I didn't have a run order, so this is just a guess.

























An LGC (Livestock Guardian Cow) perhaps?





Dianne and Zorro doing exhaust after their run ...





Maggie McClure at the pen. (Dianne, is that who this was?)





Zorro:

















Sue Wessel's dog sending sheep back up to setout. (Sue, if you read this, which dog is that?)









We headed back to Boise and got home in time to take pictures of the four new arrivals - 3 boys and one girl.



This is Pepe's new girlfriend.





One of the boys...

















Justin was taken with them...





Jaenne and the girl...





The whole crew:





















I think the moms had enough of me, so I headed in the house.





Happy tails,

Jodi