Chinquapinwood Trial - Day Two Open

The running was incredible today! The open runs just kept getting better. Today we had a shed, pen, and single so the points were out of 110.We could take any two on the shed and any single. The running was delayed an hour this morning by a heavy fog but by 8 AM the first dog was on the course and the day stayed sunny and in the high 60s. Scott was third up with Roo. His run was much better today and his outrun was perfect. The only bad thing that happened was on the crossdrive. The drive was reversed today and the crossdrive was harder to hit than yesterday. Roo made it through, but then brought them back through again. It hurt his points and he ended up in the mid 90s (I didn't write down his exact score)
Laddie ran mid morning. It was starting to warm up so I made sure to wet him down before I ran him. His outrun and lift were good again and his fetch started out right but the sheep were heavy to the left and I had Lad bump them to try and get them back on line. I tried this a few times and before I knew it I was missing the fetch panel. They needed only one hard flank and I just misjudged how much they had changed from yesterday where only small flanks were needed. They had become much heavier. We had a nice drive line but our crossdrive was too high. Almost everyone had to banana the line to make the panel but you could only do that if you were low and I was high so we missed that one. I made very large holes for Lad to come through on both his sheds and we did lose a couple of points on each for them but I wanted to make sure he'd come through. His final score was an 89.
Drift's runs started really nice but he had some difficulties on the drive. He had a really nice line going to the first panel but he flanked too quickly on his own and shot them past the gates. His crossdrive line was too high so he also missed those panels. Both of his sheds were pretty good and his pen was nice. Even with the missed panels he got a 96.
Hemp came to the post loaded for bear. He was full of it and I knew it would be hard to hold him. He had a wobbly fetch and he ran wide around the post which allowed the sheep to start towards the exhaust but he came in and prevented a disaster and had a nice drive. We made both our panels and had a nice shed, pen and single. He ended up with a 97 which unfortunately was one point out of the placings.
In the mean time, both Alasdair MacRae with Nap and Vergil Holland with Dally had laid down some serious runs. They were tied for first with a 107!
Marianna Schreeder had also stepped up with Penny (a Pleat daughter) and had a 106. Scott and Maid were almost last to go and tried for a 107.

Maid

It was a beautiful run but he was one point short of Alasdair and Vergil's runs and ended up tying Marianna instead. The good news was that 3 of the top 4 dogs (Penny, Dally and Maid) were all started in their early training by Scott so we were proud of all of them.

Maid at the crossdrive panels - Yes, those are crossdrive panels

Alasdair and Vergil had a run off for first place. There was not much wrong with either run but Vergil missed the crossdrive panels low when he attempted to make a tight turn and Alasdair made all his panels so he took first place. Well done Alasdair!
It is also worth mentioning that Christine Henry has been running very hot these last two weekends and is often getting more than one dog in the top 10.
They didn't get to the Stockdog/ nursery class today so I will post those scores when they finish tomorrow.

Open Two: (62 dogs to the post) - ties broken
1. Alasdair MacRae and Nap 107
2. Vergil Holland and Dally 107
3. Scott Glen and Maid 106
4. Marianna Schreeder and Penny 106
5. Christine Henry and Tweed 102
6. Alasdair MacRae and Star 101
7. Chris Chambers and Tag 100
8. Mary Thompson and Coal 100
9. Tricia MacRae and Cap 100
10. Christine Henry and Rook 99