Soldier Hollow Day One

Well the Glen camp is not doing well today - nor are the human members very happy. Scott and Drift ran while it was still cool but Drift spotted something off to Scott's right and didn't believe his redirects on the outrun. He crossed over and got lost so Scott called him off.
It got muggy right before Lad's run. He had a nice start to his outrun but I gave him a safety redirect midway out. Then he slowed down at the top so I gave him two blow overs. He had a great lift and a wonderful line on the fetch getting them through the panels. Shortly before the turn around the post the sheep started getting heavier and not moving. I talked Lad into moving them but after we turned the post I could see he wasn't liking them at all and was trying to grip. I stopped him from doing the first one but as the walk up the drive line got harder, he got grumpier. He gripped once and the judge let it go but when he gripped again, he was called off. I get lots of people telling me how much they like Lad but I'm afraid this weekend (and likely next) I am not on the Laddie bandwagon. To top it off, my support team of Lisa and Louanne aren't here to remind me that this isn't life or death and I should enjoy my sport instead of stressing and crying over it. I guess the only thing I can tell myself is that this is why I run two different styles of dogs. These sheep don't suit Lad, but on the whole, Hemp is the perfect dog for them. He likes the heavies because it gives him permission to lean into them without having the sheep race down the lines.
On the good side, Faansie is in second place again with his young Don dog who is a Dan (father of Pleat) grandson. We gotta ride on whatever coat tails we can find right now. Bev is in the lead with Mirk and Amanda and Clive are second with 8 more dogs to run.