What got you started?

[Mona Howard]

Sue---I just saw your picture in your profile. You are on the ground about to be tromped by sheep with your faithful collie in the background. What a great picture. I'm still laughing. That picture could be me. Really made my day. Still laughing..........

Pax---I lost my "heart horse" over 20 years ago. She was a throughbred with a bit of draft in her.

She was an Amish buggy horse rejected because she was too fancy being five gaited. She was nothing special but I loved her so. When she got old and passed I cried for three weeks. I've had other horses since but it isn't the same. So I got into the border collies, then came sheep. Then a small farm.....and it still continues. My girlfriends at work worry about me because they want diamonds and furniture for their bithdays. They were increduous at how thrilled I was when my husband bought me a couple tons of hay and built me some sheep equipment.

[DeltaBluez Tess]

PAX,

 

What a good cousin that Mark is.....tell him I said so!!! Tell him to take good care of you!!

 

Diane Pagel

[Sue R]

Mona - Maybe I should have just called that photo, "Whoops!" It happened at my first clinic which was also the first time my dog and myself received any instruction on stockwork. It was rather like being run over by a herd of marshmallows (the sheep were fairly slow and very woolly), and I laughed all the way down and all the way up again.

 

As I was the only woman present (it was a cattledog clinic but everyone had a chance on sheep) with my just-one-year-old youngster, all the men were wonderfully concerned that I was okay, but I could hardly tell them I was fine for all the laughing.

 

Celt, of course, was quite prepared to bring the sheep right back to me, like a good dog should!

[Carson Crazies]

Becca - without meeting you...I wouldn't be where I am today. I know Laura feels the same way. We all appreciate your generosity.

Absolutely I do. Becca and Julie both have been so generous with their time, friendship, and their sheep I can't even begin to express how grateful I am. I think I'm also just as grateful for the friendship (Rachel, too) that goes far beyond just dog and sheep stuff. I had forgotten what it was like to really have friends (or a bunch of gaggling hens according to Chuck).

 

I don't bounce the way I used to. I love what I do, but being bounced by a sheep, even a big one, is a lot less scary than being dropped by a 1500 lb horse.

Me either. I think I'm getting better but I'm still the queen of face plant.

[Keegan's Mom]

Yep...a big thumbs up to Julie as well since she let me bug her weekly last year and went out to dinner with me as well - I got to pick her brain.

 

I do really enjoy the friendships I have made through this hobby. We can talk about dogs, girly stuff, and life in general - good stuff and good friends!!!!

[juliepoudrier]

Originally posted by Keegan's Mom:

I got to pick her brain.

 

What little there is of it!

 

Some of my best friends are those I made through the dogs and sheep work. Y'all know who you are!

 

Oh,and what Laura and Rachel are omitting is the fact that we make them work tbeir butts off when they come out! Hoof trimming, sheep wrestling, worming, fencing--you name it and they've done it! Many thanks from those of us you've helped--it's all greatly appreciated (and I'm sure will be reciprocated when you have places/sheep of your own).

 

J.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

girly stuff,

Patrick has finally learned to go running for the hills - or recruit some manly reinforcements - when the girls come over before the talk inevitably turns to "that time" and things falling on, in, or around our chests!

[Pipedream Farm]

Originally posted by pax:

The truth is, I'm 40. I don't bounce the way I used to. I love what I do, but being bounced by a sheep, even a big one, is a lot less scary than being dropped by a 1500 lb horse.

 

...I suppose now's not a good time to tell you how I learned to be a more assertive trainer/handler with my dogs? I told Starr to lie down which she ignored knocking the sheep into me. I ended up flat on my back and Starr then ran over the top of me (literally before I could even get up. This happened when she was about 2. It actually was a real wake up call for me --definitely a lesson from the school of hard knocks. Be thankful you get to work with her in her more "mellow years!"

Renee

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

I can't say I actually thought this would be safer than working horses, but I probably did until I had an "incoming" sheep coming at me, airborn and blinded by determination to escape some dog on it's heels. I'm loving all the stories, especially the ones relating horse to dog transitions and people who made the difference in our passage from ignorance to less so. It really does tell of our culture and love for the dogs that we find so many helpful people along the way. In my years with Border Collies, I only had one fellow smirk at a question of mine and tell me that for $30 an hour (years-ago rate for education), he'd tell me what I wanted to know. I haven't seen him around much, and wonder if he's even in dogs anymore.

Wonder if I can sum up my "what got me" in less than 50 words? I'll try:

Dear pet(lab mix)PTS, considered my first purebred venture (Bernese Mountain Dog first on that list), Grace of God and Karen Lacy, Calvin, then Luke, who changed my life forever. Getting seriously burnt out on horses (and the people connected to them), but Divine process still makes sure the horses stay with me by orphaning ten-some old equine friends to my care, but allowing me to meet LOTS of new friends in my search for answers to my working dog questions via Jack Knox clinics. Ended up living a truly 50/50 life with horses and dogs to this day, often having to chose between them on weekends. Who'd have thought the Va State 4H Horse Championship Show for 2007 would be same weekend as USBCHA Finals this year? Damn. (Sorry Sue, I cussed.)

Couldn't do it, sorry. I HAVE to add, because it's a huge milestone for me, but after at least 14 years of not doing so, I (me, fat and all) broke my young QH, aptly named Faith and Chocolate, Faith for short, by myself, and without wrecking my now 48 year old body. Yippee! I owe my being able to do this to Jack, for opening my eyes to what makes for good training, thus getting in touch with the likes of Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and their protege's...at least in philosophy. I am truly stoked. That's what I call coming full circle, at least in my life. Now I try to give back through 4H, another wonderful part of my life enhanced by the dogs.

[Sue R]

Who'd have thought the Va State 4H Horse Championship Show for 2007 would be same weekend as USBCHA Finals this year?

So that's why you are only going to be there for Nursery Finals? What a bummer. Sorry for you but I know you are devoted to the kids in 4H.

 

Well, Debbie, if it wasn't for Karen, I doubt I would be where I am enjoying myself with the dogs now, too. We have a lot in common.

 

And, nobody's perfect, least of all, me. I'd have probably cussed, too (at least inside) if I had to choose between what I had to do and the Finals.