NC Championship Day One Open

Well, today's hot was doable.  It's not a huge course and the highest today was 88 with some cloud cover and, at times, a little breeze. I'm not saying it was comfortable, but not a trauma for the dogs.  Some of the sheep weren't happy about things.  One ewe escaped from set out onto the nearby road, dodged cars until it came back in the main driving entrance and over to the walk through gate for the trial field.  A brave save was made by Christine Koval when she tackled it to finally get things under control.! (sorry no pictures of the event)
Scott and Don were second up and the sheep were not as easy in the cool of the morning as they were in the hotter afternoon. It's very important to cross every T and dot all your i's because this trial traditionally scores high.  Don made a good go of it after he got his sheep back on line on the fetch but he scored an 81 which didn't even make the leader board!
Laddie was running well and had a nice outrun, lift and fetch.  His first drive line was very good but he was a little low on the crossdrive and missed the panels low.  You just can't stub your toe like that at this trial and that, along with the missed attempt on the shed, hurt us and only got a 76 from the judge.
The prettiest run of the afternoon was Virgil Holland and Brooke.  When I tell you there wasn't much wrong with it, I mean that literally as he scored a 98.5 out of 100!  Everything just worked so well in that run.
Hemp was an a**.  I don't know if neutering is going to help any since I'm not sure how to fix his problems.  When we are practicing, he has the prettiest pace and works so well with me but at a trial, he just runs through it and does it his way.  It's not like I don't leave the post when it's going bad but he just gets so amped up.  I'm just glad Ford is coming along.  Hemp made all his panels, had a missed attempt on the shed and screwed up a virtually un-screwable pen for an 81. 
June was nice today.

June on the terraced fetch

She had one ewe who wasn't playing nicely but she kept her cool

June makes the fetch panels

  (except one small thought that obviously crossed her mind on the crossdrive but she was too far back to cause any problems with her line).  Most of her points came off her shed because Scott took the front two instead of the back two and she lost 5 points.  They ended the day with a 90.

Open One (69 dogs)
1. Virgil Holland and Brooke 98.5
2. Marianna Schreeder and Penny 92.5
3. Debbie Bailey and Camp 92.5
4. Chuck Dimit and Coal 91.5
5. Scott Glen and June 90
6. Christine Koval and Bess 89.5
7. Christine Koval and Nap 88.5
8. Bobby Ford and Cap 87.5
9. Renee Billadeau and 87.5
10. Debbie Bailey and Huck 87