Dr. Ben's 2011 Day One - Open

The open started out nice with a cloud cover that made the first half of the day cool. The last half of the day was another story with heat and humidity.
Maid was not on her best behavior today. She needed a shout out on the outrun and then the top 1/4 of her fetch was erratic. She settled down by the time she got to her drive and made all her panels but had a missed attempt on her shed. She got her pen fairly easily.
Laddie ran next and it was just starting to warm up. He also had trouble with his outrun and got lost. He ran too wide then he started to come in early (it looked like he too wanted to bring me the pony in the next field). When he got to the top, his sheep had left a little early and he didn't immediately straighten it out.

Lad and I on the fetch

Finally he got on line and had a nice drive even though I tried very hard to screw up the crossdrive panels. Fortunately, Laddie saved it and then had a nice shed and penned with no help from me.

Lad holding his shed

He ended up with a 76.
Donnie ran when it got hot. His outrun was flawless but he took a little bit of time settling into the sheep. It wasn't a smooth run but the lines were good and he made all his panels. He had a difficult lead ewe and they were not easy to shed. It took a long time to get a gap but when he came in it was nice. After that, the sheep were done and wouldn't let hot, tired, Donnie catch them at the pen (many of the older ewes know just what to do to keep from being caught). Time was called before they completed the pen.
Our surprise good run of the day came from Hemp. Yes, you heard me right. Hemp. In the heat. I won't say he was perfect (but his outrun was), but we were better and with the sheep being broke katahdins, I wasn't scared to ask alot from him. On the third leg of the drive he started acting up by not stopping and flanking as well, which was probably due to getting a little hot but when he got to the shedding ring I could see he wasn't that bad and he could finish. He came in on his shed and then we went to the pen. I kept him well out of it - I let Lad do his pen by himself but with Hemp's history of slicing at the pen when he was hot, I did as much of it by myself as I could and closed the gate with an 87.
The best run of the day was Debbie Bailey's Huck(le Berry Hound) who laid down a smooth one for a 93.


OPEN 1 (57 dogs)
1. Debbie Bailey and Huck 93
2. Bruce Fogt and Cam 90
3. Christine Koval and Tweed 89
4. RC Tomlinson and Lou 88
5. Debbie Bailey and Camp 88
6. Jennifer Glen and Hemp 87
7. Cy Peterson and Emma 86
8. Mike Hanely and Moss 86
9. Scott Kelso and Jill 84
10. Allen Hickenbottom and Vic 84