Two weeks ago we headed down to SC for the Broken Back Ranch Trial. I was up last and had to work until lunchtime, so hustled like mad to get there just in time, a mere 4 runs before I was up. The field was not large but had lots of draws, and the sheep were very challenging. Plenty of RTs for losing sheep to the woods. It was tricky to figure out how to handle them...sheep ran if your dog got too close, ran if your dog got too far off...ran ran ran! Had to find that sweet spot. I suffered the effects of a cold whistle for the first part of Sat's fetch (just under my jacket was NOT good enough, had to go down another layer!), we nearly found ourselves in the woods by the driveaway panel where you were to RT, but got things recovered. Good cross-drive line, made panel, split, timed out at pen (there were but a handful of pens).
Sunday she lifted like a mack truck (and they were on corn), so they shot off down the hill, catching me by surprise. Regained control but she took a wrong flank at the post and we had to unwind half (never did that before). Same course, better first drive leg, cross-drive dead on and made panel, this time pen before single. The only prayer you had at the pen was to get them stopped in the mouth and wait them out. We had 2 promising occasions but somebody decided to get a little slicey (I swear I kept my cool on my end!) and unsettled them. Timed out.
Livy came along to learn about "the business." Here she's learning about the business of king-sized hotel beds.
I was really pleased with our work even though the scores weren't great. We were able to clean up messes that previously would've resulted in RTs. Woohoo, progress!
No comments:
Post a Comment