Whew!!!

I am trying to finally get my body back onto West Coast time.  Maybe it is the age, maybe it is the let down of the event being finished but, I tell you what, I wake at 4 and fall asleep at 7!  That said, I had the best of times at the 2013 Finals in Virginia. 

It was my first time flying two dogs and I admit, I was a little nervous.  So much out of my control....but the girls did just fine.  I can't thank my friend Joe Haynes enough for picking me up at the airport and sharing a ride all week.  He was a trouper stopping at old houses

 and Civil War Cemeteries.

and driving through every single puddle I could find on the side of the road! 

Belle Grove Plantation......

exceeded any expectation I had in my mind's eye.

  

 

As I walked the fields with my girls, stretching them out and letting them run, we walked among the fallen dust of the civil war.  The Battle of Cedar Creek is memorialized in a field adjacent to the Plantation.

I ran a camera, filming runs for friends and my own personal homework.  I love filming because it makes me watch meticulously while keeping me from getting distracted...well for the most part.  I only have a few pictures of the trial...and none of me and my girls from the post.  That makes me a little sad but then Joe & Bryan filmed my runs so I have video AND commentary!

 

 

There was a small stream bed that ran through the course, being dry the first few days, it would become an issue as the trial progressed. I walked the cross drive to see what the sheep would see and grabbed a shot of the post, pen and two tents for the handlers and expected crowd.

 



Dude at the post while I walked the cross drive

 

The set out was done by horse back and what a job they had!  These ewes were some of the wiliest sheep I have ever met! 

And then the skies opened up and the rain came....rain much like the Pacific Northwest but the January variety.

 

Pictures just don't do it justice!  The trial committee was just darn right fabulous...hauling loads of gravel and straw, building a bridge for the camping handlers to leave by, and hiring a tractor to haul out those stuck in the Virginia mud and needing tractor rides!

 



 

My only side-effect from the heavy rain was having to buy a new pair of jeans, a new rain jacket, a pair of boots (as I did not listen to my friend who told me to pack mine)  and another suitcase to haul all my wet clothes home in.

 

My girls ran well...both getting scores.  Nell handled the pressure of the ewes well without a grip; although I know she wanted to, she did not.  Much progress has blossomed between the two of us on this journey.  Bella drew a persnickety ewe and handled it so well!  There were places on the course where, in days gone by, she might have taken a sheep out.....instead, she was cool as a cucumber!  Me, well, I continue to have work to do.  Hence why I taped so many runs!  After watching the likes of Larry Burch and Alasdair MacRae handle the sister ewes to my Bella's run, I see ways I might have stepped up and helped my dog.  Time and miles and miles and miles. 

 

I loved the Virginia finals.  So many fabulous dog and handler teams, all of which I got to sit at their feet and learn from by watching. I also had a lot of fun laughing and listening to the banter of those I call friends and mentors.  Now it is good, no, GREAT to be home.  Working dogs yesterday was better than the best chocolate and I know great chocolate! 

 

 

Seize the Day!