Last weekend we headed down to Robin's for her benefit trial in support of ovarian cancer research. One word: hot. We drew up early in the order Saturday and the field was wide open at the time. The sheep were tricky and the field is small with lots of pressure and difficult terrain. Rae gave me a gorgeous OLF, I barely said anything to her other than to adjust the line near a pond and to mind her manners around the post. Right hand drive headed toward the exhaust which housed the bawling, recently-weaned lambs. For whatever reason, I had a major brain fart and my handling went down the shitter. I had Rae guarding the pressure to the exhaust, but I kept downing her again and again and again. And for once, she took every single one. I don't know what I was thinking, maybe I was trying to place her so that we could let them drift down the line to the panel? Two went on ahead, and when I flanked her ever so slightly to get the slacker, the other two excused themselves toward the exhaust. I felt like it happened in slow motion. It was awfully stupid handling on my part. Rae was lying there and looked back at me like "Um, do you see they're getting away, dumbass?!" With such close quarters we weren't able to get them before the "out of bounds" area, so we were done. I was so freaking mad at myself. My dog was brilliant and I was a major sped. A number of other people had trouble and there were very few scores for the day, so we were not alone in the losing-your-sheep department. Still I was extremely disappointed in myself.
Sunday we drew up right before lunch. It was about 90 degrees and super humid then, I wasn't sure Rae would be physically able to finish. The course, including post and pen, was different. Rae again gave me a great outrun uphill and into the pressure (I'd practiced exactly that during the week), but something funny happened at the lift. The ewes were being held with grain, and Rae calmly walked into them and was eyeing them for a couple seconds while they had their heads down, stufing their faces. All of a sudden, 2 bolted downfield and Rae followed trying to cover. I did a double-take, doubting myself about a gazillion times, but there was still one ewe at the feed. I'm not sure if those 2 might have responded to the 4-wheeler that turned on just at the time or what, but she surely didn't goose them or do anything else I could see to make 2 take off. I got her downed and the 2 stopped about 1/3 way to the fetch panel. She refused a look-back, which was smart on her part because she knew that if she let up on the lead 2 that they'd be gone. I held her downed for maybe 10 seconds until all of a sudden the last ewe looked up from its buffet and realized it was alone...she scooted down the field to join the others. Made the fetch panels, good line, turn, one little bobble on the driveaway near a pond. One of our best turns ever at the crossdrive, nice line but a little slow. I held her back as the sheep really looked unsettled..at the post 2 of them were repeatedly head butting each other, on the crossdrive one started mounting the others (what the heck?!!). At the last minute 1 ewe drifted high towards setout, the other 2 low. I had to send her to save the single, but in the process we sacrificed putting the other 2 through the panel. Got it back together, good line to the pen despite a tricky draw toward the exhaust. Took some time penning...there was no gate and the pen was very small, you got to choose your side. Rae listened well but had a moment of wideness when she thought she was going to lose them to the exhuast. Finally got them penned. We were running groups that had a red collar, blue collar, and a naked ewe, and while penned we had to call out which we were going to single. We headed to the shed with about 40 seconds left, and the one I thought would lag behind ended up being stuck in the middle the whole time. This seemed to happen to everyone! We worked and worked and I finally called her through in desperation with just a few seconds left. It was a hideous setup for her, calling her in on the butt and asking her to give up the pressure toward the exhuast. I didn't really expect her to take it, but with an extra flank command she came through. GOOD GIRL RAE RAE!
Our score wasn't high enough to place (finished in about top 1/3) but I was very happy with our work. I'm sure the lift killed us. It was a trying course and we certainly held our own. Lots of teams lost their sheep, so I'm glad we got around once. Rae listened so well and I was so proud of her!
Next up is the PA State Champs this weekend. It sure would be nice if we got a break in the weather, this recent heat and humidity has been unbearable. Hard on the dogs, sheep, and handlers, too.
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