March

Our March AKC trial is over and I'm very pleased.
The competition was tough and the judges were tougher but the weather was mild and beautiful. The Hathaways were there along with Claudia Frank, Denise Teal, Sherry Moss and other tough competitors. I had Grace entered in Started B course so the first day we went out and I was very nervous. Grace took a tight outrun and sent the sheep racing up over the hill and back to the exhaust gate at which point, I thanked the judge and left. >:-(
I was much happier with Chance's run on Saturday in Started A where he had a fairly nice outrun and a nice overall run that was very controlled. He won his class and high sheltie for the day and I think was just 1/2 point out of running for Reserve High In Trial.

Sunday, after Grace's disaster on Saturday I thought briefly about pulling her but I went ahead and ran her. We got a good set of sheep and she had a very nice outrun - not perfect but not bad either. We messed up a bit at the handler's post but fixed it. We had a fantastic drive (wear) around the panels and a fantastic pen. We then held the sheep in the shed ring and were done. We ended up in second place but most agreed that it looked more like a first place than second place run. The most emotional part was when Claudia Frank came into the field for her run and she said "Come over here right now!". She then dropped her crook and gave me a big hug and told me that the run was beautiful and that I should be very proud. It felt great to get that kind of reaction from Claudia.

Sunday, Chance had another good run but not as good as Saturday's. He was tight on the outrun and lift and was a little pushy on the wear around the course but did a nice job overall and got the same score as Satuday - 91.5. So he again took the first in Started A and was high sheltie for the day (again!). Our points were also good enough for Reserve High In Trial (Claudia took High so I was not disappointed!)

Here are some pictures from the trial that were taken by V.W. Perry...