Living it!: Mayanup 3 Sheep Trial 14-16th August 2009

Due to "issues" with the traditional (and wonderful) Mayanup club grounds, this trial introduced a new trial ground for WA. It was held at Ken and Jenny Atherton's property near Wagin, on a brand new arena with a picturesque view down to the Arthur River, swollen by the recent rains.

The setting of the course was more than a little tricky, with a slope to the right, a track cutting diagonally across the ground and a ditch and dam bank on the right side of the course, just past the bridge. The bridge was made more difficult by the addition of posts before and afterwards for the handler to negotiate- I believe they were intended to keep the handler's path from influencing the sheep at the mouths of the obstacle, but the position of the bridge close to the dam bank made this irrelevant for most runs, because the sheep tended to break into a mad dash for the dam as soon as they approached the bridge. More than a few handlers (myself included) were too busy concentrating on their course to anticipate this, and lost control.

We've had some bad weather at trials before, quite often at Mayanup events, but this trial was impressively awful from that perspective. Storm warnings, strong winds, heavy rain, frigid temperatures and three separate showers of hail... The sun did come out for brief periods, just enough to start us thawing, and Sunday was mostly fine, although I suspect by that stage many competitors were thinking that Mike and Glen Scott had the right idea, trading a weekend of trialling for a jaunt to Broome.

Just after the hail- R judging the Improver

The gate on Saturday morning, with two more days of traffic to come

The bright side

The sheep were temperamental Dohne crosses, which took advantage of the terrain
to make repeated breaks for the dam, and were often successful, resulting in
more than the usual number of crosses, retirements and lost sheep (especially
for dogs that got to the bridge). There were only 19 scores in each of the Novice and
Improver classes, with 60-something runs in each class, and only 3 pens for the
whole trial- all of them by female handlers (Marianne Rogers with Coco, Germaine
Seymour with Somerville Lucy, and Jenny Nolan with Ella).

Frank Sutherland and the cheap seats

Binnaburra Tuff and a Nolan's dog (?Ceri)

Nan Lloyd's Ramulam Pixel (Ramulam Feathers x Pomanda Lily)

Butter wouldn't melt...

This year, Mayanup tried to address the growing issue of high entries by excluding Novice dogs from the Open competition. It wasn't very popular, especially with me, but I'll whinge about that later. So I had two runs each with Queani, Pink and Bill, and then sulked through the Open as a spectator. I wasn't expecting much, since I haven't had a chance to do any training since the last trial, but Queani actually worked relatively well. In the Novice she did swipe on the anticlockwise side of the obstacles, which cost us, but we made it to the bridge, where I took my eye off the ball and the sheep broke to the fence, and Queani crossed behind them. In the Improver she seemed to be overrunning to the right at the top of the cast, so I whistled a stop, and uncharacteristically she actually paused, which allowed our unfortunately crazy sheep to take off running to the dam, where one flung itself into the fence and we retired. Shows how much she should listen to me.

Pinky tried hard, again, but we have some major training to do. She's getting stickier on her cast, and harder to shift, although once she does decide to move she kicks out well around them. In the Novice we crossed, but in the Improver made it to the first peg where we had to unwind, and then I just couldn't get her to come off balance again. I did put a lot of pressure on her, and eventually she started looking stressed, so I retired.

Bill with the wind in his hair

Bill was in a funny mood on Friday for his Novice run. The wind was howling, and maybe it was the noise of the wire and plastic at the let out that spooked him, but he just didn't seem himself. He worked reasonably well for him anyway, and we did have the sheep fairly settled when he got to the bridge, put them in a good position, but then he and I argued about how far around he needed to come to cover the dam bank, and when I called him in close and the sheep broke in the other direction, he crossed.

He was happier in his Improver run. I concentrated on not bossing him around too much, and while our run was messy and not high scoring (32) , at least we got a score, which (as Marianne pointed out) put us in the top 25% of the field.

Encourage winners, Mick Martin with Boylee Stella (Boylee Barney x Boylee Salt), with R holding Mick's hand

Stella's litter sister, and my Esme's mum, Boylee Ella

Rick Janitz's Jandoree DotCom (Boylee Syd x Boylee Elly)

Novice- judged by Germaine Seymour
1) Tony Boyle Bellview Dale (collie) 65
2) Marianne Rogers Christies Cocoacina (collie) 64
3) Phil Dorrell Ramulam Patch (NZHDxcollie) 60
4) Bernie Jones Bellview Teddy (collie) 59
5) Andrew Gorton Boylee Ella (collie) 54

Badgingarra Taff (Dajara Tosh x Grassvalley Sam)

It's always hard to get a decent photo of Boylee Speck (Bill's litter sister- Boylee Pepper x Boylee Creamy)- she's usually hiding behind a blade of grass

See- she does have legs!

Hayden Harries with Mac's Magic (Boylee Fred x Christies Demhi)

Hayden is still recovering from a nasty car accident, not long after Magic suffered her own major leg injury, but they are getting on with it very effectively

Olboa Ben (Kiwi Knight x Boylee Kelly) on Hayden's "wheelchair"

Improver- judged by Richard McGuire
1) Ivan Solomon Perangery Sasha (collie) 69
2) Ivan Solomon Perangery Beck (collie) 66
3) Tony Boyle Boylee Mustard (collie) 64
4) Jenny Nolan Faraway Titch (collie) 60
=5) Marianne Rogers Bellview Obie/Bernie (collie) 56
=5) Jenny Atherton Badgingarra Tony (kelpie) 56

Hudson's Tasha

Badgingarra DotCom (Princes Tom x Grassvalley Sam)

Rocky Chick (Nolans Roy x Rocky Bear)

Sarah Somers, one of the few handlers to make it to the pen, with Willeen Archie (Nolans Jim x Burndale Mary)

Open- judged by Nick Webb
1) Ivan Solomon Perangery Jill (collie) 73 + 56 = 129
=2) Ivan Solomon Perangery Sasha (collie, only 19mo) 59 + 67 = 126
=2) Gordon Curtis Binnaburra Tuff (kelpie) 55 + 71 = 126
4) Grant Cooke Grassvalley Tod (collie) 60 + 59 = 119
5) Ray Sutherland Swagman Cyndy (collie) 71 + 42 = 113
6) Wayne Hall Boylee Wal (collie) 57 + 53 = 110
7) Ivan Solomon Perangery Danny (collie) 68 + 27 = 95
8) Grant Cooke Pendalup Candy (collie) 50 + 38 = 88
9) Peter Gorman El Shamah Ellie (collie) 55 + 26 = 81
10) Jenny Nolan Grassvalley Ella (collie) 65 + Scr = 65
11) Jenny Atherton Badgingarra DotCom (kelpie) 60 + X = 60
12) Ivan Solomon Perangery Beck (collie) 51 + R = 51
13) Ray Sutherland Christies Tammy (collie) 50 + X = 50

Open winner, Ivan Solomon with Perangery Jill (Perangery Tom x Christies Chloe)

Perangery Danny (Boylee Doug x Perangery Jill)

Danny was unlucky with this one obnoxious sheep in the final- he did some brilliant work to keep it out of the dam, but it cost him major points and time