Sunday, March 20, 2011

St. Patrick's Day Trial

Heppner, Oregon - There are a couple of things that have become routine at the Heppner trial, the weather will be cold (and sometimes snowy) and the sheep will be tough. The range sheep this year were again difficult and were not rewarding for the finesse dogs. They were not bad in the morning but they were getting hungry by the afternoon and just wanted to stop and graze. You could have line or flow but it was difficult, as day went on, to have both.
They have not had a nursery class for a couple of years so Scott went down with just Maid and Don. He uses this trial to see what his dogs need to work on before we start on our big trip back east. This year, he found out that Maid is doing very well, and Don needs to open up on his flanks more. On the first day, he ran Don 30th, which was well after the time the sheep were wanting to have some lunch and noon up. He tried for a nice crossdrive line but it shut the sheep down too much and he described it as "pushing rope". He had a missed attempt on his shed and no pen. After that, he was sure Maid would probably grip off. That was the old Maid though, and the new Maid came to this trial. She moved them very well and ended up winning the day! Don ended up in 5th.
On Sunday, Scott drew up in much the same place. Don had the nicest run of the first half of the day with an 82 but at the end of the day, Patrick Shannahan and Riggs laid down a 90. Scott and Maid were challenging that score until Scott had a missed attempt with her on the shed. She regathered instead of coming in (I not-so affectionately refer to this as " pulling a Laddie"). They got their pen and their final score was an 87, good enough for second place and the overall win.
I apologize for not having all the people/scores and dogs in the top 10 each day. I wring all the information I can out of Scott and this was all I got this time!

OPEN 1
1. Scott Glen and Maid
2. Don Helsely and Wizard
3. Dave Imas and Cap
4. Lynn Johnson and Anna(?)
5.Scott Glen and Don

OPEN 2
1.Patrick Shannahan and Riggs 90
2. Scott Glen and Maid 87
3. Don Helsley and Tag 86
4. Scott Glen and Don 82
5. Karen Stanley and ?

Overall Winner - Scott Glen and Maid

4 comments:

Donna Brinkworth said...

Congrats to Scott and Maid!!! Woot woot!!!! And to Patrick Shannahan and Riggs of course! And, I see you are tweeting now - I will subscribe... that is awesome.

Anonymous said...

I saw Don's second run and Maid's first run, both very nice runs, a joy to see them work.

Monique said...

Congratulations! Way to go!

Sarah said...

Congrats!!!!! wooohooo