PR Bracken

Scott's second nursery dog for this year is PR Bracken.

Louanne Twa's PR Bracken

Bracken is owned by Louanne Twa of Phantom Ridge Border Collies in High River Alberta and is out of her blue merle bitch, Corriedhu Isla. Isla is a import from Scotland and is a daughter of Bobby Dalziel's Spot.

Bracken's Dam, Louanne Twa's Corriedhu Isla

Bracken's sire is Alba Hope owned by Lisa Wright of Athabasca, Alberta. Hope was bred by Alasdair MacRae and is a grandson of his USBCHA National Champion, and International Champion, Nan and USBCHA National Champion, Ben.

Lisa Wright's Hope- father of Bracken

Training Bracken has been kind of a family affair for Scott who is also training her litter brother, Craig for Louanne. I am also training another littermate, Syn for nursery (who will be profiled later). Craig will be returning to Louanne in March and she will be getting him ready to run in the spring nursery trials.

Bracken moving heavy sheep in a snow storm in Alberta

Scott will be running Bracken until around July, and then the plan is for her to return to Louanne (hopefully qualified for the Nationals) for her to team up with and be ready for the Finals in Colorado.

PR Bracken

Louanne with Craig, Scott with Bracken, and I with Syn will be meeting up at the Bluegrass and plan on having a throw down on the nursery field. May the best dog win!

Reba

The first of Scott's nursery dogs for the 2011 trial year is Reba.

Cy Peterson's Reba

Reba is a 2 year old red tri bitch owned by Cy Peterson of Georgia. She comes from a proven line of trial dogs. Her mother is the two time USBCHA National Champion (and reserve Champion), Star, owned by Eileen Steinman and handled by Alasdair MacRae.

Eileen Steinman's Star handled by Alasdair MacRae at the 2010 Plumb Lucky Trial.

Star was bred to Eileen's popular stud, Don, who was an Irish import brought over and handled by Alasdair. The breeding has been done 4 times and Reba is out of the third cross. The first cross had a couple of standouts in Alasdair's Rex and Ron Burkey's Sky and the second cross had Scott's Don who has been well chronicled in this blog.

Reba in training at Alta-Pete Farm over this winter

We are hoping that Reba will be the standout in the third litter. Scott is enjoying training her but credits Cy for putting a good start on her. She is definitely a strong candidate to being one of the two nursery dogs that Scott will pick to run at the National finals but that is still a long way away.

Reba fetching sheep at Alta-Pete Farm

Reba's first trial will be in Missourri at Larry Moore's Lc Farm's Stockdog Challenge May 6-8, 2011.

Soldier Hollow

Tomorrow I am putting our 2011 entries in the mail. Yes, thank goodness, we were both invited again. Scott's invite is not a surprise but I am very glad they decided I could run a dog too. I have bombed out every year I have run there so I'm never sure if I'll be allowed back again. There are a few discretionary invites every year and they usually are extended to spouses. Last year, one of those courtesy invites, Jean Gellings, won the whole kit and kaboodle. I need to do that! It's a really fun trial to compete in, and go to. I would go to watch even if I didn't get invited (SHHH! but don't tell them that or maybe it will happen!). Truly, this is a sheep dog trial like you've never seen. It's so much more than a trial, it's an event and I encourage everyone to go and experience it.
Scott will, of course, be running Maid and Don and I think I'll be running Hemp again. It's a toss up for me, but Hemp, at least, has never lost the sheep at the top of the trial's hill. (knock on some serious wood)
This year they are giving back to the border collie community by offering a few "extras". Their new WEBSITE is going to offer a "Border Collie Resource" tab that will include subcategories to promote, blogs, websites and Twitter address and sheepdog related enterprises.
They are also adding a "Sheepdog TRIAL Resource" tab where a trial organizer can get information about how Soldier Hollow became so successful (over 25,000 visitors came last year) and use the tips to improve their own trials. In addition, they are giving complementary passes to any trial organizer and a guest to come to the Classic, if you contact them ahead of time.
Last year, they introduced the handler VIP room with water, sodas and snacks for the handlers. It also had a handy outside deck with shaded tables and chairs that became a popular gathering place for the competitors. This year they will be making computers available there for the handlers, to email, blog or Tweet from.
Speaking of Tweeting, taking a page from the super successful Tweets from the National Finals, Soldier Hollow has added a Tweet button on their home page and they will be posting live updates after each run.
So if you are making the big trip to Meeker or the Finals, come a little early and visit the Soldier Hollow Classic. It's an amazing show.