Monday, February 25, 2008

Esperance

First trial of the year, Cascades, near Esperance. It was a LONG drive, but worth it!














The Ravensthorpe mine:














Jack at the wheel:















The weather was somewhat fickle- cold and quiet in the mornings, but hot and windy later in the day, and a huge storm front on its way through:

 


















More photos at the bottom!

To summarise, I shall copy from an email to a list, because I am too lazy to write anything original:

Results-

Novice:
Neil Kristiansen Badgingarra Shelby 92
Neil Kristiansen Bellview Shadow 91
Neil Kristiansen Badgingarra Top 87
Tim Foster Boylee Minnie 87
Peter Gorman Princes Casper 87

Improver:
Neil Kristiansen Grassvalley Sam 95
Wayne Hall Boylee Wal 94
Neil Kristiansen Karrawarra Shona (kelpie) 94
Ivan Solomon Perangery Danny 93
Glenice Webb Morillo Hedda 91

Now I don't have the results of the Open, we had to leave before the Open runoffs had finished, but I think the finalists included
Ivan Solomon Perangery Jill 95
Grant Cooke Grassvalley Brook 94
Neil Kristiansen Karrawarra Shona (kelpie) 94
Ivan Solomon Perangery Danny 93
Neil Kristiansen Badgingarra Casey 92
Gordon Curtis Binnaburra Tuff (kelpie) 89
Neil Kristiansen Badgingarra Shelby 89
Marianne Rogers Bellview Obie (aka Bernie) 85
Me and Boylee Bill 82
and 3 other dogs, including Neil K and Grassvalley Sam, who apparently scored a 99 (not sure if that was the final or the run off) to win the trial.
I heard that Ivan and Jill were 2nd and Neil capped off a rather successful weekend by also taking out 4th, 5th and 6th!

I just have to have my little brag- Bill and I made the Open final! Now he's not a great dog, but he's my handy farm dog and I love him. The Open wasn't even our best work, I thought he'd done better in the Novice (where we got stuck at the race, scored a 61), and the Improver (where we got stuck at the bridge, scored a 43), but he tried hard for me, including a very brave walk-up all the way along the bridge, and for a reject pup, trained and worked by a clueless beginner in our 4th ever 3sheep trial I thought we did well.

Marianne and Bernie (Bill's half brother) also deserve a major mention- he's another sensitive soul, a 2nd hand dog who has needed some patient and gentle handling and is now starting to come out of his shell and do great things for Marianne. I think they got the biggest round of applause ever at the pen. And Jean Hydleman, who I think is also on the list, had some nice runs with George (I missed Laydee's Open run, but heard it was good).

My other 2 dogs went OK- I was really happy with Muddy, who has started to engage his brain a bit more on the trial ground. He's always listened well but he's a bit lacking in natural feel or cover, and I was starting to think it was pointless trialling him so I'm thrilled that we can now reliably get to the obstacles.

Fly had a shocker of a first run, but we went OK in the Improver (I thought) and made it to the race before she stopped listening and refused to come off balance. She'll be relegated to the farm dog team for a while to settle down.

Richard and Fred got to the pen but lost heaps of points with twitchy sheep on Sat afternoon, but he had good runs with Queani (penned with an 80) and Bella, Charlie's sister (until she crossed in a classic farm dog manouvre) and one nice run with Murphy and one shocker.


Jack, with Elfinvale Toby in action:















Esperance local Tim Foster with Linthorpe Percy- Fred's son (how much like Bill is he?!):
 











Bernie (Bellview Obie), looking calm and collected, just before scoring an 85 in the Open to make the final for Marianne:
 













Elizabeth Badger and Horse at the bridge:
 












Ivan Solomon and Perangery Jill having yet another fantastic run:
 

















Andrew Gorton and Bell (Boylee Ella) at the pen:
 










Badgingarra Doug, a cracking young dog:
 









Richard's Boylee Murphy in his first trial- he had some good moments, and some not so good moments:
 







Tim Foster and Boylee Minnie:
 













At Jerramungup on the way home:
 
 
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Drenching photos

Just some photos showing the middle yards, drenching a mob of ewes.
 
 
 
 
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Monday, February 11, 2008

Recent clinics- Sean Barrett, Jenny Parsons

Last weekend it was the stockhandling school with Sean Barrett of Black Dog kelpies, held at Nan Lloyd's place at Darkan. Very very worthwhile, even if the lack of sleep and cranky baby made life fairly difficult. Similar to Neil McDonald and Bud Williams methods, and the "parts of the eye" stuff teaching us how to influence animals using the drive, drift, bend and block zones was an eye opener. I can see it being extremely useful for me alone and working my dogs- it seems they have a better understanding of this stuff than I do. R was familiar with it already because of the natural horsemanship he's done, but it was still very useful.

No photos, sorry.

This weekend we managed to get to Capel to Jean Hydleman's place, for a school with Jenny Parsons. This was very casual, extremely well catered (I ate like a pig!) and we were able to stay in Jean's caravan so I would have been well rested if babyJ hadn't decided to wake up every half hour on Saturday night. He was exceptionally well behaved otherwise, spent most of his time paddling in the dogs' trough. Mucky water, dogs galore, it was Jack's idea of heaven.

We saw a few nice young kelpies, Richard's favourite being Badgingarra Blue, a Jock pup (out of Robinson's Lady), and a mix of other dogs, from the babies (Nan Lloyd's Drift pups and Tom's fuggly pup), various pets, rescues, show-bred dogs, shelties, aussies, BCs and working-bred collies and NZHD-BC crosses, to the mature and sensible experienced trial dogs like Jean's Laydee and George.

Because of the range of ages and levels of experience in handlers and dogs, the clinic went from round yard to paddock and back, but focussed on getting handlers to recognise the influence their behaviour has on their dogs (I need to stop scowling, apparently), and for the dogs, exercises on learning pace and "low-stress stockhandling", so it tied in nicely with last weekend.

We also got to see young Sonic's first time on sheep- Karen was sure he'd be a nutty barker, but he was quiet and fairly serious, kept well off the sheep and settled fairly well, even if he seems a bit soft and possibly overly strong on the head like his mother. He's only a baby yet, but fingers crossed he'll turn out to be a dog Karen can go on with.

Karen with Sonic:
 












Hayden Harries with one of his nice young NZHD-BC pups (KnightxKelly)
 













Marianne and her new mini Beardie (no, sorry, that's Tom's Border Terrier Pritani)
 













Nan's Drift:
 
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Guirmere Brynn:
 












Tom and Chris with Brynn:
 











Warren with his kelpie, Badgingarra Blue (a Jock pup):
 












Karen's Riot (Hotnote AsGoodasitgets):
 
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