Dry Lake - Nursery Report

Rylee ran in the Nursery at Dry Lake. There were two Nursery Runs - the first class had 15 entrants and the second had ten. Three dogs earned qualifying legs in the first go and two in the second go. We were not among them.

The Nursery course was a significantly shortened circuit from the Ope Course - the outrun was ONLY about 300 yards. More importantly though the topography for the first 300 yards let the young dogs see their sheep the whole route on the outrun so they did not have as much trouble as the Open dogs.

Rylee's first run she had gorgeous outwork. A nice wide and deep outrun to the right. Followed by a slow and steady lift. On the fetch the sheep tried to lean on her a bit but she steered them nicely. 0-1-2 off for a total of three points lost on the gather. When the drive got a little bit out of control though I decided to retire her rather than put too much pressure on.

The second run started much the same but the sheep leaned harder toward the exhaust on the fetch and Rylee was a bit behind on the steering so we were off line on the fetch. We got the drive underway and it was a bit wild at the turns but I decided to hang on and see if she would cover. By this point in the trial the sheep were getting a bit difficult and I wanted to see what she could do as long as it was not getting truly out of control.

I was a bit late giving her the flank to cover the exhaust draw on the cross drive. But despite the sheep wanting to make it to exhaust Rylee covered them. I actually could not see Rylee because she was behind a slight dip but I saw the sheep stop and turn their heads. So I presumed she had them and when they turned around and started walking my way I went to the pen. Rylee did a nice job putting them in the pen and we finished in 3d place.

She is coming along a little bit each time we go out.