An AHBA herding trial was held not too far away on the weekend following the nationals. I had Hollie entered in ranch course and arena course both days on sheep. I chose to give cattle a miss, and its probably just as well as we were both fried and Hollie wasn’t working very well.
The AHBA trial was a lot of fun, this particular trial was a lot more laid back and informal.
The ranch course was great, being based on practical every day work – moving sheep in from a paddock, sorting the sheep into smaller pens, moving them through runways, regrouping, moving from point A to B (or driving in the higher levels) and repenning.
Hollie Q’d in ranch both days for her HRD1 title. I was a little surprised that Hollie really felt the pressure in the smaller pens, and so did I when she kept trying to fetch the sheep to me as I was trying to shut the gate once in the pen. Trying to shut a gate is not very easy when you then have 5 sheep standing on top of you.
Hollie wasn’t working at all on the arena course ether day, which is a shame as other than the freestanding pen I felt though course was very do-able. The first day we made it to the pen before I pulled our run (even though she was still passing at that stage) because she wasn’t listening or even trying to work, and the second day we didn’t even make it to the Y chute.
Following the AHBA trial I headed up to Sara’s place in S New York to spend the day training with Lynn. It was a lovely day, and we managed to get Hollie back on track and working - even if not completely to her full potential given that she was tired.
At the end of the day we put Tooheys in the small pen (despite my better judgement!) , and while he still has a loooong was to go I was pleasantly surprised to find that he had improved somewhat since we last put him in with sheep 12 months ago. We now have something to work with! - he was actually wanting to get round the sheep (even if in only the one direction) and was starting to fetch a little, instead of gluing himself to my legs then blasting through the middle.
The AHBA trial was a lot of fun, this particular trial was a lot more laid back and informal.
The ranch course was great, being based on practical every day work – moving sheep in from a paddock, sorting the sheep into smaller pens, moving them through runways, regrouping, moving from point A to B (or driving in the higher levels) and repenning.
Hollie Q’d in ranch both days for her HRD1 title. I was a little surprised that Hollie really felt the pressure in the smaller pens, and so did I when she kept trying to fetch the sheep to me as I was trying to shut the gate once in the pen. Trying to shut a gate is not very easy when you then have 5 sheep standing on top of you.
Hollie wasn’t working at all on the arena course ether day, which is a shame as other than the freestanding pen I felt though course was very do-able. The first day we made it to the pen before I pulled our run (even though she was still passing at that stage) because she wasn’t listening or even trying to work, and the second day we didn’t even make it to the Y chute.
Following the AHBA trial I headed up to Sara’s place in S New York to spend the day training with Lynn. It was a lovely day, and we managed to get Hollie back on track and working - even if not completely to her full potential given that she was tired.
At the end of the day we put Tooheys in the small pen (despite my better judgement!) , and while he still has a loooong was to go I was pleasantly surprised to find that he had improved somewhat since we last put him in with sheep 12 months ago. We now have something to work with! - he was actually wanting to get round the sheep (even if in only the one direction) and was starting to fetch a little, instead of gluing himself to my legs then blasting through the middle.
The view in New York
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