Spring Creek SDT

Last weekend we went to a new-to-me trial in Lebanon, TN at Spring Creek Farm.  The weather was wonderful and the field was great.  The course was very flat and the dorpers were set at about 450 yards.  Some groups were rather opinionated runners, though overall very consistent, and in general, they rewarded the strong-eyed dogs with smaller flanks and a slower pace (ie not Gabe!). 

 

Trial field

 

Gabe ran first for me and I was very pleased with him.  The lift was nice but shortly thereafter they bolted toward the right in the direction of the exhaust.  Instead of letting him cover, I downed him, because I'm so used to over-handling him at the top in order to keep him reigned in.  My mistake.  Shortly after the fetch panels we were finally able to bring them back online and get them settled, and he had a nice, controlled drive around the course except for a couple mixed up flanks.  Since these sheep were so touchy, a wrong flank was very costly for Gabe since he covers a lot of ground quickly, so our lines were not pretty, but he made his panels.  Over the weekend the sheep showed no problems penning, so after a quick pen we went out into the shedding ring with plenty of time.  These sheep were notoriously tricky to shed, so the judge allowed any single to be taken.  We worked for probably 1:30 trying to get a hole amongst sheep that wanted to alternate between putting their heads down and glom together and bolting.  But Gabe really helped to make the hole and I got him in cleanly!

 

Spain had a nice go during a spell when the sheep were feeling a little cranky.  She stopped short on her outrun, which I've not encountered before, and I whistled her on and gave up the points instead of waiting to see what she'd do.  She was a little speedy and the fetch had a couple minor wobbles, but her drive was quite nice and she was feeling them very well.  Into the pen and then to the ring.  I wasn't out there very long when a fortunate opening appeared, and wasn't sure whether to take it or re-gather and do it correctly, but since the judge had said "any sheep, anyway", I figured I'd better go for it, and Spain said OK.  Spain and I had lots of fans because this area was part of her old stomping grounds.  Her owner was even there to see us (well, and run his other dogs).  We got an 87 for our efforts, but the competition was outstanding, and we only landed in 16th place.

I ran Livy for her first time ever in the Pro-Novice.  Her work is above that level, but she is very excited at home, and even more excited away from home, so we may need to hang out in PN a little.  The PN outrun was 200 yards and the fetch was parallel to the exhaust.  That pressure didn't help her I'm-so-excited-I-want-to-run-tight outrun, so I had to stop and redirect her, and she got out there fine but I still would've liked to see her wider.  The sheep bolted and she covered well, but everyone was running.  I tried to get everyone settled at the post turn, but these sheep were determined to run.  Every time I flanked her to cut off their escape, they did a 180 and sprinted in the other direction.  She flanked to stop them, they ran away.  We just couldn't get a flow going.  There was a moment where I thought we'd gotten everyone settled and she was able to walk straight onto them, but that was quickly lost as the leader made a break for it.  I retired, but not too disappointed in her efforts.  She was excited but was listening and trying hard to do what I asked.  It was a situation we'd not been in before, so both of us were in over our heads.

Sunday they changed the course just a little to add to degree of difficulty.  The sheep were set at the same distance, but made a left-hand dog-leg fetch to a barrel, then through the fetch panels, then turn at a bucket in front of the post.  This greatly changed the line to the driveaway panel and made it tough to pick out.  Gabe was the second dog to the post; the first run didn't go well.  It was very hard to see the top end due to the sun and haze, but he stopped right where I asked him to and nailed the dog-leg...actually, a little too well, as one of them slipped to the wrong side of the barrel.  I had trouble seeing and I knew we didn't have great precision anyway, so I wasn't disappointed in the least.  He fell in nicely on the left side of the sheep and had them coming very straight, but we were slightly offline.  I was afraid to flank him away to bump them back online for fear of them running down the right side of the field, since that was where we were beat Saturday.  So we skimmed the outside of the left fetch panel and continued to the post on about the same path.  I was being cautious, but happy with the flow, so just kept on.  He had another good drive and made both panels, but we had a spell of him taking a wrong whistle, me correcting him with a wrong verbal, and him taking the desired flank on the wrong verbal.  Groan.  Another easy pen, but I had some brain farts going from the pen to the ring and they scooted out of the ring before I got them settled.  We were in there for nearly another 2 minutes, and it was starting to look a little worrisome, but he continued to help me out and we got a great shed!  I was so happy with him, that was the hardest course we've ever been on and he did so well for me!

Spain started off on a bad note as she fought me for the dog-leg.  She'd pulled-up short Saturday and got whistled on, so this time when I stopped her short and downed her, she decided to continue on to balance.  I kept moving her back to the correct spot, and she kept righting herself.  So we lost a number of points there, but eventually did make the barrel.  The rest of the run was very nice, a little faster pace than most runs but the lines were nice, until my panel panic right before the cross-drive gates.  I could see that she wanted to turn them low, but I just couldn't think of what her away whistle was!  Ahh!  So I blanked out and sort of gave-up, letting her turn them just inside the panel.  Good pen, and this time she got her well-earned shed.  I could've kicked myself when I saw that we ended up 3 points out of the placings...way to throw away that panel.  But that's ok, I was happy with our work.  I didn't really think we'd had a chance since our lift was so poor, but lesson learned for me.

I actually didn't stay to run Liv in her second PN run.  I wanted to give her another chance, but the sheep were getting crankier and I was quite tired.  The trial was a time-zone behind me, so the 6-hour drive home became a 7-hour drive, and since I didn't have my usual Monday off of work, I decided to leave after running Spain.

This was a good trial for me.  I do not have enough experience on flat fields, and this was the biggest trial course that Gabe has encountered.  Spain got to run in front of her friends and she really worked well for me.  Liv got a taste of the action and showed some good stuff.