This was a really fun, laid back trial. Tom and Ruth Hines of Oaktree Border Collies in Bartlesville, Oklahoma were excellent hosts. This was the first year for the Oaktree Fall Classic and everyone who attended felt it was big success. Sat. went better for the BBC Team than did Sun. but we still had a wonderful time.
Tess was the first Baxter Border Collie dog to take to the post for the Open Ranch class. She had a pretty nice outrun. She started to drift in a little about 3/4 of the way through, but looked in to check her sheep and before I could try to redirect her, she kicked herself back out and completed her outrun and made a nice lift. The fetch on the otherhand wasn't anything to write home about. The sheep pulled over to one side of the field and I could not get Tess to flank to get them back online. The drive was decent and the cross drive was going well until Tess had trouble hearing with the wind and decided it was best to just bring the sheep back to me! Dang! We got things back in order and completed the course. Not exactly a picture perfect run at 64 points, but 2nd to Angie Coker-Sells, don't think there's much to complain about there! :)
Josie was next to run in the Ranch class. Two words, well 3 if you count "and" Fast and Furious! LOL She's a little speed demon. She made it out to the sheep a little tight, but for never having run out that far I wasn't too disappointed in her. She had them flying to the post and once she got closer to me she settled back down and we made the rest of the course in okay fashion. Josie ended up 4th in her second trial with 43 points.
Next was Josh and Pete. Pete laid down a decent run except for not listening to Josh on the drive, but still managed a 1st place finish with 55 points in the Ranch class due to a nice gather.
Blaze went last. His outrun could have been a little bit wider and he managed to drift off line and not want to flank like Tess, but his drive was pretty good. We had heck at the pen with one ewe that didn't want to keep with the others, but finally got them in. Blaze finished 3rd with 46 points.
I'd rather not relive our second day, so I'll spare the details and just sum it up with the scores. (The first day the drive was only worth 15 points and the second day Danny Shilling, the judge, decided to give the full 30 for the drive.)
Tess 3rd 44 points Open Ranch
Pete 4th 65 points Ranch
Blaze 5th 61 points Ranch
Josie 6th 46 points Ranch
Pictures soon to come. For full results, check out the OSDA Website.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tulsa State Fair
Talk about running a marathon... The first run of the cattle trial was held on Tues. as was both runs of the sheep trial. So I was back and forth from arena to arena about a thousand times waiting for Josh to run Pete, checking to see when the sheep handlers' meetings were, going to get a dog from the trailer, running back over to see if Josh was running yet. Needless to say, there wasn't anytime for the camera on Tues.
I started off with Tess in the Open Ranch Class. She had a great outrun, lift, and fetch, but then the drive got really messy both times. Tess stalled out on me on the crossdrive both times. The set out was right next to the crossdrive panel and Tess wouldn't come off the pressure to push them through the panels she was too worried they'd get away back to the set out. I can't remember if we ever did get a pen either run. I'm leaning towards no for both. See... amnesia again! So we managed a 4th in the first run and a 5th in the 2nd run for an overall finish of 4th place. I was a little disappointed, but hey that's trialing!
Blaze on the other hand, I was really proud of. He had a great run both times and tied for 2nd in the first run and tied for 1st in the second run. That left me tied for the Overall First with Danny Shilling and his dog Rip. They looked at the gather scores for both runs. My gather was better on the first run and Danny's was better on the 2nd run, so I was excited about doing a run off. Then they came to us and told us that they were going to add the 2 gather points together, so we were edged out by 2 measley points for that nice Tulsa Fair buckle. Rats! Blaze could have cared less about the buckle and I was so happy with him!
Pete ran in the Tulsa Derby which is designated for 3 year old dogs only. The cattle were really fresh and too much pressure sent them all over the arena, so Josh played it safe and didn't hastle the cattle. He walked around with his hands in his pockets the entire time and him and Pete just caressed the cattle through all of the obstacles for one of only 2 full score runs of the day. When all was said and done, Josh and Pete came out on top for the first day. Way to go guys! Then 15 mins. later they were over in the sheep arena running in the Ranch class. Pete was still in cattle mode and had a hard time staying off the sheep and wasn't listening the greatest, so his sheep runs didn't go so well and he ended up 6th. That's okay Pete, we all know Josh likes cattle better anyways!
Then Wed. rolled around and Josh and Pete got their second run. The pressure was on for Josh. Him and Pete laid down another nice run, but they had one heifer that didn't feel like playing. She charged Pete more times than I can count. Pete turned her back with a nose bite a few times, but she wasn't deterred. So she slowed things down significantly. They still finished, but their time wasn't good enough to hold onto 1st place. So they had to settle for 2nd to Brent Daniel and LH Wood's good dog Bree.
I started off with Tess in the Open Ranch Class. She had a great outrun, lift, and fetch, but then the drive got really messy both times. Tess stalled out on me on the crossdrive both times. The set out was right next to the crossdrive panel and Tess wouldn't come off the pressure to push them through the panels she was too worried they'd get away back to the set out. I can't remember if we ever did get a pen either run. I'm leaning towards no for both. See... amnesia again! So we managed a 4th in the first run and a 5th in the 2nd run for an overall finish of 4th place. I was a little disappointed, but hey that's trialing!
Blaze on the other hand, I was really proud of. He had a great run both times and tied for 2nd in the first run and tied for 1st in the second run. That left me tied for the Overall First with Danny Shilling and his dog Rip. They looked at the gather scores for both runs. My gather was better on the first run and Danny's was better on the 2nd run, so I was excited about doing a run off. Then they came to us and told us that they were going to add the 2 gather points together, so we were edged out by 2 measley points for that nice Tulsa Fair buckle. Rats! Blaze could have cared less about the buckle and I was so happy with him!
Pete ran in the Tulsa Derby which is designated for 3 year old dogs only. The cattle were really fresh and too much pressure sent them all over the arena, so Josh played it safe and didn't hastle the cattle. He walked around with his hands in his pockets the entire time and him and Pete just caressed the cattle through all of the obstacles for one of only 2 full score runs of the day. When all was said and done, Josh and Pete came out on top for the first day. Way to go guys! Then 15 mins. later they were over in the sheep arena running in the Ranch class. Pete was still in cattle mode and had a hard time staying off the sheep and wasn't listening the greatest, so his sheep runs didn't go so well and he ended up 6th. That's okay Pete, we all know Josh likes cattle better anyways!
Then Wed. rolled around and Josh and Pete got their second run. The pressure was on for Josh. Him and Pete laid down another nice run, but they had one heifer that didn't feel like playing. She charged Pete more times than I can count. Pete turned her back with a nose bite a few times, but she wasn't deterred. So she slowed things down significantly. They still finished, but their time wasn't good enough to hold onto 1st place. So they had to settle for 2nd to Brent Daniel and LH Wood's good dog Bree.
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