I entered four dogs at Margaret River Three Sheep trial this year as it is a nice ground and being an unofficial trial, good for young dogs.
Rio had some bad luck, just one of those things. The trial is held during the Margaret River show and the show committee in their wisdom had decided to erect a marquee near the casting peg just before Rio’s run. Being a little nervous of strange things it upset her terribly and I had a job settling her on the peg. I did get a nice cast but as I walked off the peg she would not go around behind the sheep to pick them up as the marquee was too close, so she crossed. She was nervous for her second run but went out ok, however this time when the sheep came out of the letouts they just stood right near the hessian and she could not get behind them. She did try but I probably made it worse by stopping her everytime she looked like crossing as I could not see too well. In the end she crossed again.
Angel also crossed twice as I expected. I have had a few problems getting her to cast properly. She runs close but if I try to push her out she will stop so I just have to let her go. I ran down the field and let her pick them up after the cross which she did nicely. She was controlled and seemed calm enough so I was pleased with her as she is not used to the atmosphere at a show. I spent nearly an hour leading Driftz and Rio around the show to get Rio used to things as nothing worries Driftz and it helped settle Rio.
The sheep were big and inclined to stand up to the dog, and as Lara is not very strong she decided that working them as fast as possible was a better option, so subsequently would not stop at all. Very frustrating, so we retired on our first run after completing the race and ran out of time in her second run also after the first obstacle.
My daughter Sam ran Lara in the encourage but once again Lara would not stop and we retired for that one too.
Driftz’s first run was a bit full on and she also crossed but her second was probably the best she has done and the highlight for me. She was really listening and stopping, and even though we did not get a high score I was pleased with her.
Another highlight was a win in the open event by Balto’s dad, Ken Atherton’s Ramulam Gus. (Boylee Doug x Branga Spec). Gus and Ken really held it together in the run off, as some of the others had real problems with the sheep. Gus is a genuine all round dog, a winner in open utility, open yard, and open three sheep as well as a great farm dog. Lets hope Balto can live up to his dad.
Andrew Gorton won the novice with Boylee Ella (Boylee Barney x Boyle Salt)and also placed equal third with Grassvelley Tippy. Andrew has not been trialing a long time but is a great handler and has done very well in a short time. He is also the Mayanup club president and does a great job there too.
Strange weather here. Yesterday was one of the hottest October day’s on record. Today has been very stormy, in fact just a few minutes ago a large storm passed over us dumping 10mls in ten minutes. There was water everywhere, running past the house in rivers. We are doing some shearing at the moment, just the shipping wethers and the culls so I had to pen up the shed to keep the sheep dry. Shearers will not shear them if they are wet. They are working at the other shed today but there is not much room there to keep them under cover so we pen up this shed as well. Angel and Caleb did a fabulous job of penning for me, I was pleased with both of them as the job needed to be done in a hurry as the storm came up quickly.
Just after lunch I was shifting a mob of lambs and ewes and a tremendous crack of thunder scared the daylights out of me and scattered the sheep everywhere. Fortunately, Dolly, Rio and Driftz were not worried and gathered them all up again.
We are having a great season here and the sheep are fat and woolly which is great but not without its downside. The biggest fattest ones lay down a lot and at times get cast, so like a turtle on it’s back they cannot get up. So we have to regularly go around the paddocks to stand them up or they will certainly die. If only sheep would help each other, just a nudge with the nose would be enough to get them up but unfortunately sheep do not do things like that, however useful it might be.
We have been busy jetting but have finished now. I have done nothing with the young dogs at all. Yindi is developing into a well behaved young dog though and I am pleased she has settled. I have to admit I originally thought she would be too much for Sam and tried to persuade her to sell Yindi but she really loves the dog and I think her faith will be justifiedt. I had Yindi on the motor bike today with little trouble. She was terrified of it for a long time but seems ok now.
I will miss the next trial at Ongerup this weekend and the last trial for the year is at Albany in three weeks so hope to make it but we may be doing the main shearing by then. One can hope.
Here is a shot of Gus and Ken in the first round where he scored a 93.
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