My version of the shedding ring

As per my conversation in the previous blog.

This is how I feel when I am in the shedding ring or what I like to call it
circle of death or Bermuda mind circle.

Part 2 Wildrose trial

Once again I find myself with only one dog to run. We were set to run toward the end of the day on the first day. End of the day meaning 10 PM. Just before my run the judge called it a day and said we would run the rest of the open dogs the next morning at 6 AM. Well just great I am so not a morning person. This also meant Meg would run both her open runs with in a couple of hours and then were are done. Our first run was pretty fabulous except for me giving her a couple of wrong flanks on the drive. I am chalking that up to the early morning. Then came my part setting up the shed. Well putting it bluntly I F**** suck at shedding. For some reason it is the only thing I can't figure out. Meg will come through just fine if I make the hole. I am so tired of leaving 20 points on the field. Our first run we scored a 69 no shed, no pen. (You guys do the math). Our second run was much the same. Pretty much bang on until the shedding ring and then timed out. Scored a 65 (again you do the math).
At this time I would like to apologize to Meg for not keeping up my part of the bargain. Sorry Meg you do everything I ask on the field and I fail you. You are a pretty kick ass little dog.
Because we ran so early there are no pictures of Meg's run. But I thought I would post some pics taken from the bluegrass in May.

Photos taken by
Christine Koval

Scott ran Bracken at this trial. She was a little rusty and on the muscle for both her runs. She didn't place in either runs she but showed some nice things. Check out Jenny's trial blog to see pics of Bracken and a feisty ewe. http://altapetestockdogs2.blogspot.com/ She handled it like a pro. 

Bracken is coming home on Monday next week. I am a little nervous to take the reins of this little powerhouse. But I am going to try my best. 

So much to tell you about

This trip seemed so eventful I don't know where to start. I could blog about this for weeks. I think this blog is going to be  more of an installment type blog. Today is the first of many. Wednesday I traveled north two hours to the Wildrose trial just west of Olds, Alberta.
The first evening Lisa and I spent grazing sheep on the trial field. There was plenty on mosquitoes and plenty of wine. I did not use my camera at all. I used my iPhone for everything.

Family photo of me and Meg.
Do you know how hard it is to get a dog to look at the camera for a self photo.

After a good nights sleep. Lisa and I went on a shopping trip to some local western stores to find some new western garb for our up coming stampede trip. When we cam back we were warned of an impending storm and told to batten down everything. Well the storm took for ever to come. 

Lots of cool looking clouds. Then came the hail.

At least I didn't have to go to my trailer for ice.

The tornado looking clouds rolled in.

Is this green or more of an aquamarine?

I the end there was tornadoes to the west of us and some to the northeast of us. But thankfully missed us.

Stay tuned tomorrow for tales of sheepdog handler fashions, stunt doubles and some dog trialing too.

Graduation Day

Last week Justice Graduated from high School. Funny I remember when he was born I thought to myself "when he graduates I will only be 36 years old and I will be foot loose and fancy free" Well that day arrived and I feel to old to be foot loose. So now what to do with all my free non parenting time. Nothing really Justice is still at home and requires parenting.

As you can see it was a typical graduation.

There was texting

Grandparents

Great grandparents

Aunts

And of course girlfriends

A Bump in the road

The last couple of weeks have been very traumatic mostly for me but also for Craig. Two weeks ago Craig broke his leg while helping me move some sheep. It was a freak accident that could happen to any of us but that day it happened to me. Of course I can't help but feel responsible even though it was not my fault. It was a very bad open fracture on his front leg. The vets were unable to plate and pin the break so Craig has an external fixator on his leg. 8 weeks of crate rest means no more trialing for this year. We are two weeks in and the vets are confident he is going to be OK. He goes in for weekly bandage changes and to check the screws and incision sites.

Just home from surgery

Joe was very concerned for Craig

North Dakota wrap up

Now a days a persons travels are rated by how many new facebook friends you come home with. Some of us like Jamie travel around to met current facebook friends in person. Our North Dakota trip was epic in a sense that everything was larger than life. The trial fields, the weather, the flooding, and the friendship amongst 
handlers.  We started out at The Big One and then on to the Slash J trial. Due to all the flooding most of the handlers camped in town at the local campground. A luxury to have power. Quickly the days all gobbed together I have a hard time remembering my runs. What I do know is that we ended up middle of the pack most of the time.

Trial field at The Big One
900 yrd outrun
This is what it looked like the second time we ran

Trial field at Slash J

After the trial we stayed a couple extra days to take in an Aled Owen advanced handling clinic. We mostly worked on shedding and some turn backs. It was a good learning experience. I really need to work on my shedding and Aled gave me some good drills and things to think about. 

We had a great time in North Dakota and will definitely be back.

Catch up blog day

I have a few moments of free time to catch up. I have been so busy and seem to not get anything done not sure how that happens. Each day the list gets longer and longer. How does someone who is not employed still need and assistant. Oh and a maid would be nice too. I have had a stressful couple of days which I will catch you all up on later. For now lets look back on Kentucky.

Driving through Chicago was an experience.

We visited the Kentucky Horse Park one day. You could spend days here and not see everything. It was raining that day so we practically had the place to ourselves.

Spent a couple hours at the Keenland racetrack.
This place is really a town all to it's self.

The fanciest gift shop I have ever been in.

Wendy tried to find her self a new hat.

Some well known trainers had horses at Keenland when we were there.

Wendy was more concerned about the pretty bird sitting on the fence.

After all this we were there for a dog trial.

This was the open field. A nice rolling field running on yearling ewes.

Nursery field

A small fenced field which proved to be the more challenging of the fields.

I had a great time at the Bluegrass and would defiantly go back.