Bluegrass

[Shoofly]

Has anyone heard any results out there?

[Shoofly]

Hey - heard our very own Denise was 2nd in the 1st round of Open with Mick! Way to go!!!!

[NancyO]

Way to go Denise!!!

 

Has anyone been able to get Open or Nursery scores off of the Bluegrass site?

 

Nancy O

[Shoofly]

It doesn't look like Open is on there but the Nursery scores are. Try using MS Explorer - i was able to pull them up using that browser but not Mozilla/Netscape.

 

It looks like Scott Glen and Gwen have won the first 2 rounds of Nursery.

[Pipedream Farm]

YEY!! I'm happy for Denise!

Renee

[tucknjill]

sigh, this is me pouting in a big way that I am not there.... I am soooooooooo proud of Denise...way to go gal! Sounds like Scott is doing quite well too!

[Pipedream Farm]

Go Denise!!

 

Mark

[workindogs]

Can someone tell me about the sheep? From Denise's photos it looks like they are using two (or more) different flocks. The lower classes & nursery are running whitefaces (how many??) and Open is running 3 blackface sheep. Anyone know about the flocks and where they came from??

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Mick, Mick, Mick! Oh, yeah, love ya too, Denise.

 

They usually get a flock of Western range sheep (commercial wool crosses) for Open and a flock of more dogged sheep for the lower classes. That's one of the things I've liked about the Bluegrass - I get to see the dogs on much different types of sheep than we usually run around here (the east). I used to have a flock that ran heavily to Suffolk and Rambo so it was nice to see how the different dogs reacted to sheep similiar to mine.

 

If this really is the last year I'll be very sad.

[Sue R]

Wait until a month or so after the trial to see if there will be one next year - it is dependent on volunteers, costs a fortune to put on, etc. Right now, the organizers are all exhausted and the thought of all that work again is overwhelming.

 

Keep Denise and Christine in your best thoughts tomorrow. When I left early this afternoon, they were both in the top 20 combined Open scores. Hopefully, they will both remain there and will participate tomorrow in the finals. Just qualifying for the finals is a tremendous honor. Denise was third in combined score and Christine was in the teens (I just don't remember precisely where).

 

As for myself and Celt, we have retained our hold on the low end of the scores in Novice, but we had our best score ever with a 53 (we might have done better at the pen as the sheep were lined up just right, if I hadn't given the wrong flanking command THREE times in a row, until we timed out), followed by a 43 the next day, as we timed out on the wear.

 

I was SO proud of Celt. These were only his 5th and 6th times at the post, and he only sees sheep about once a month at our lesson. And he's just 2 1/2. Maybe by the time he's ten or so, he'll manage to get ME around the course on time. We all know who the weak link is in this partnership, and it's not the dog!

 

Best wishes and good luck, Denise and Christine!

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I'm going to be SO nervous for Denise - I'm sorry, Christine, but Mick's my second favorite dog and I have to root for him (uh, and Denise, yeah!). I wish I were there, wah!

 

I hope they take pictures of each other!! :cool:

 

Safety to all the competitors and volunteers, too and for safe travel home . . .

 

I'm planning to contact the club to find out what can be done to help for next year. I'd sure hate to see this important trial go away.

[Eileen Stein]

Well, folks, Scott Glen was asked what kind of sheep they were running in Open, and he said "Satanic crosses." And boy, was he right! Worse than last year, and they ran them in sets of three (they used four last year). Black-faced range sheep brought in from Texas, all lambs (nearly-grown) so there's no leader, all bent on suicide but all three with very different ideas about how to commit it.

 

Or so it seemed to Gyp and me, and to many others. Denise and Mick, OTOH, handled them very well indeed. Her 86 in the first go-round kept her in first place by more than 10 points from early Wednesday until mid-day Thursday, when she was bumped down to second place by a controversial half-point. And there she stayed, with the ultimate third-place finisher nine points behind. I'm so glad she had a good second run to put her into the double-lift (these tough sheep really brought out the best in Mick), and delighted that Christine and her Mick appear to have made it in too. I think a third member of our Boards--Penny Tose--may have gotten in as well, although I'm not sure because I had to leave early. If not, she was close to it. The finals should be a real nail-biter.

 

The novice classes and the first two nursery classes were run on a different flock, I think belonging to Vergil Holland. But I believe the ranch classes and the second two nurseries were run on "used" sheep from the Open field. Those sheep did get better with use, but they were still no walk in the pasture.

[Tassie]

The next best thing to being over there is watching the results on the Internet. Even though I don't know folks personally, it's still very exciting seeing how folks from the boards do. Especially since I know a whole lot more about this sheep stuff this year.

 

I loved your description of the Open sheep, Eileen. Three sheep is the deal here all the time - my trainer says it's so hard, because sheep have 3 possible responses to dogs - fight, flight and freeze - and with 3 sheep, especially undogged lambs, you've got every chance that each of the 3 will adopt a different strategy.

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

I'd like to add a bit about something I saw yesterday at the top.

 

The sheep I handled this week were pretty good sheep. None were sour or gave me the impression they were too "done" with dogs. Sometimes I get the impression that some sheep are used to beating dogs (and people) and some might have had a lot of harrassment that makes them overly panicky. Vergil's were sane and sound sheep. The Texas sheep are reportedly the offspring of hte sheep used here last year. They are really stressed, I guess by their last couple weeks' experiences, BUT they are honest and appear to give back what they get. I really liked handling them. They were far easier to read than the sheep at most trials, which is why I'm here. I love this stuff. The dog has to be confident (the sheep aren't!) and powerful enough by presence alone and quick to cover them ALL (distance!) and give them time to think what's being asked of them (tick tick tick goes the clock!),

I saw one astounding piece of work at the top yesterday--I radio'd down after to see who the handler was--by Chuck Dimit's dog. One sheep broke away and came back by itself and hung by the corner where the sheep rejoin the pen if exhausted up top. His dog came up and instead of what usually happens (two things, dog grabs sheep or dog sits there waiting for somebody to tell it what to do), it (girl, boy dog?) quietly got behind this single upset sheep and waited for it to move. Soon, the other two sheep came flying up and they were all up there, wanting to get in the pen. This dog got behind them and found it's balance point, and eased them back onto the field and through the course. I never heard a handler's whistle and he surely couldn't see the dog with the sheep tight in the corner up there. I love to see this stuff. I know he probably didn't get the best score for the "offline" fetch, but it was definitively outstanding work on the part of that dog. Good stuff.

These are good sheep, if given a chance to think.

Then again, I'm not an open handler, so it's just my personal observation.

[Eileen Stein]

Whoa, don't get me wrong! I love the tough sheep at the Bluegrass, and would much rather trial on them than the overdogged sheep we so often get in the east. If it sounded like I was complaining that the open sheep were no good, chalk it up to faceless internet communication. I was exclaiming that they were difficult, and I think looking at the scores, for the first day particularly, will bear me out. (Don't know if you were over on the Open field for the first go-round or not, Debbie, but there was quite a difference between how they worked in Open I and how they worked when re-run for Open II.)

 

My eyesight is simply not good enough to see how they were at the set out, but elsewhere they frequently split and ran like hell for no apparent reason (except general panic). Actually, they did just what Barb describes. Good dog work could generally get them back together in the open field (with loss of points, of course), but down near the bottom, though they seemed quite leery of people, for some reason they had a mad desire to get into the handler's tent (maybe it looked like a big barn?) and every so often one would break away from the group and try to hurl himself through/over/under the fence, sometimes successfully. It was a challenge! But all the more credit to the ones who were up to it.

 

Vergil's sheep appeared to be sane and normal sheep, a good choice for the novice classes.

 

EDIT: Okay, on re-reading my first post I guess the problem was my use of the word "worse." Maybe I should have said "tougher," "wilder" or something like that. I didn't mean to suggest at all that they weren't good trial sheep, an excellent test for dog and handler.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I enjoyed your descriptions, Eileen, and Debbie's too (the view from the top is ALWAYS one worth listening to - I love to hear Colin Cleer's view of a trial!). I knew what you meant!

[Eileen Stein]

Ohhh, looks like Christine and Penny didn't quite make it into the finals -- Christine ended up 22nd and Penny was 24th. But they have a lot to be proud of.

 

GO, DENISE !!!

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Have you got a reporter "on the spot" Eileen? Do you know when Denise runs?

[Eileen Stein]

Nope, I have no sources at present. I also don't know whether they drew again for today's running order, or if they ran in reverse order of their qualifying scores. If the latter, Denise would be quite late, because she was third overall in the qualifying.

 

But by now it's probably all over . . . maybe somebody else has heard the results?

[tucknjill]

Ok this is friggin killing me. WHO WON?????

 

Debbie I was sorry to hear about your dog...we all got together to work this past weekend and we were all so sorry to hear of the accident...I cant even imagine...

 

On a happier note, Denise, can I hold yer hat MOMMA???!!!! When is the clinic? CONGRATS!

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

I knew what you meant Eileen and of course, you are right; I was on the novice field Wednesday through Saturday, Open Sunday, so I only got to have the Texas sheep Friday and Saturday, after they had been worked through once on the Open course. I heard it was tough. They settled well for Bill and I by then. Two days made a big difference, and I think they all handled well for everyone, top and bottom, Sunday.

Basically, you're right about the faceless internet thing. I tried to state that those were my observations and Eileen better articulated observations; I guess my comments were more opinion after all, based on my rudimentary knowledge about sheep handling and dogs. I like to hang at the top to avoid opening my mouth and feeling like a fool about what I think I see going on. Oops! Now i feel like a cyber fool. Ha Ha...still not as bad as feeling ignorant in person!

Thanks Sam...Luke was my partner in everything I did, and I think I need to back off dog trials for a while and get my emotional priorities back together. Yeah, I know he could have been kicked by a horse at home, or worse, but maybe this whole week has been a message I'm supposed to be heeding. I have a lot to think about on the long lonely drive home today. What am I doing this for? I have one less dog that I could be riding home with if I didn't come here in the first place and 99% of that dog's life didn't involve putting sheep together in little bunches for people to run around a field with their dogs. Day Three without Luke. I know tomorrow will be better.

[Sue R]

Debbie - I am so sorry to hear that you lost your Luke.

[Pipedream Farm]

Debbie: I think I need to back off dog trials for a while and get my emotional priorities back together.

 

This was the right thing for me after Blue.

 

Mark

[Valhalla]

I personally want to thank Debbie for another wonderful job with the work up top for SIX LONG days! That she continued to work and held it all together even after the tragedy of losing her dog! Hats off to you Debbie! I hope my hug helped you yesterday morning.

 

Yup, Mick got bumped by Billy Young and then Alasdair and Boots (who were the 3rd and 4th runs from the end, so I waited ALL day to get bumped). I had a combined score of 128 and Billy's score was 128.5. Talk about missing it close. When we were bidding on teams at the calcutta on Saturday night and Billy came up for auction, I was tempted to raise my hand to start the bidding at .5, but chickened out. Regardless, I was very proud of Mick (and Rook). On those sheep, it was an accomplishment in itself.

 

I am also very proud of Denise, especially after holding it together for her second go with Mick. She had a rough group of sheep and they split up on the top end before Mick even got half way out. They ran back to the set out pens and Mick was trying his hardest to get them together and back down the field. The judge gave her a re-run and told her to call her dog back, but Mick was determined to get those sheep, even if it meant jumping in the pens after them. Since Mick didn't want to give up and leave his sheep, Denise had to get a 4 wheeler ride up the field to fetch her dog. She came back down, did her re-run like nothing had ever happened and clinched herself a spot in the top 20. Now that's calm under pressure!

[Eileen Stein]

>

 

Hardly. As Becca said, the observations and opinions of the set-out folks are always sought after. (Especially at a trial like this, where it's so hard--for me, anyway--to see what's happening at the top.) And I appreciate the chance to correct any impression I might have given that I was criticizing the sheep. The Bluegrass is a wonderful trial, which is why a homer like me is willing to make that long miserable drive, even with only one dog to run.

 

Again, I'm very, very sorry about Luke.