Today is the final day at Soldier Hollow......the sheepdog trial I have been following from afar! It's the double lift day and the top five teams from the past three days are running....making for some great competition.
Patrick Shannahan has been one of my mentors since I started my journey of training and trialing sheepdogs. He runs last..which might be a great time of day for the sheep. It will certainly keep folks on the edge of their seats or refreshing their computers until the very end. Tommy Wilson and Sly are a team I always watch real close.....Sly is my Bella's half+sister. When Sly runs well, I feel great hope for what Bella might become. Lavone Calzacorta is from Idaho making him a "local" so to speak. He is one of the folks who puts on Big Willow and it has been fun getting to know him this year. Suzy Applegate...from the Northern California area....has two dogs in, including one of my all time favorite dogs to watch.......the 2008 Nursery Champion, Buzz. Then there is Wilda Bahr who is from Southern California and is one of the USBCHA District 1 reps. It is really hard to pick just one team to call "favorite"! Good luck Everybody!!!!
As always, you can keep up-to-date here, which will pull up today's scores as they are posted:
SOLDIER HOLLOW CLASSIC SHEEPDOG TRIAL
Over the past few days, I have been thinking about these highly competitive trails that lead up to the Mother Trial....the USBCHA National Finals. I've heard that Soldier Hollow...and Meeker....are some of the toughest trials here in the West. From all the blogging accounts I have read, Scott Glen and Don put down a real nice run....but the score did not get them to the double lift final. It was interesting reading Jenny's thoughts on this coupled with something Scott had mentioned in passing...that Don had never been on tough fine-wooled range ewes before and this trial would be a learning lesson. The Glen's "sportsmanship" presented amidst a disappointment is something I am hoping to take to heart and learn from.
While attending the Scott Glen handling clinic at Fido's farm a few weeks ago, Scott had us participants run a "mock trial". I drew up first....which was a great opportunity for me to feel what that is like! Nell ran really nice and we put down a respectable run....however, I had a handler error at the pen that cost me some points...and though we got the lambs in....those points might have been what I needed at another trial to get into the final day. As I sat there reflecting on how I could have handled my run different....Scott said to me something like this: "Lora, that was a real nice run......be good with that.... and know that if somebody beats you....they had a better run. But if you let yourself obsess about what you could have done different....you take away from the run you did." Okay...it was something like that...not word for word and with a Canadian accent for sure....but I got what he was saying to me. I did the best I could with what I had on that day with those sheep.....I can not change it after the fact.....and obsessing takes away from the joy of watching other dogs do amazing work....and certainly will keep me from learning and becoming better at the end of the day. Same song...next verse...a good run does not make me a good person or have a good day any more than a bad run makes me a bad person or have a bad day. Oh the lessons of sportsmanship!
Soldier Hollow has started...off to check scores....then on to work my dogs getting ready for some fabulous October trials!
Seize the Day!!!!!
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