Rough Weekend in Poway

We went to a (relatively) local trial in Poway over the weekend. Open and Nursery both Saturday and Sunday. Total of four runs. No numbers.

But before getting to the details congratulations to a friend who had a very productive weekend. Mike Burks and Sport won the Open on Saturday for 7.8 points giving him just under 30 points to qualify for the USBCHA Nationals. That point total should be safe for qualifying. Then, to complete a good weekend, Mike and Mia won the Nursery Class on Sunday to get Mia's second Nursery leg and qualify for the Nursery Nationals. Good Job, and good weekend Mike.

Also Thanks to Mike for running my video camera for Piper's two runs, and to Tierney Graham and Ron Ewers for taping Rylee. Thanks also to Jennifer Ewers for a more detailed post mortem than usual from the Judge.

Now, to our runs. Piper ran fairly early on Saturday. She went out slightly narrower than usual (but not too bad) and was a little flat at the top. Three points lost from the outrun. Her lift was not the explosion it sometimes can be but was probably just slightly on an angle to my left, which Piper quickly fixed it and actually a better than usual lift for Piper.

Piper's fetch was pretty straight but brisk (not out of control fast - but definitely moving at a good pace.) We got three of four sheep through the fetch gates and got things calmed down for a pretty nice turn around the post. This was a major accomplishment as the sheep definitely wanted to run to exhaust on most people near the post. Six points lost on the fetch (there was one 3 point fetch and one 5 point so our 6 point fetch was one of the better ones for the day.)

We got the drive away started toward one of the other draws and had it going on a pretty straight and fairly controlled line. It was looking much better than usual and then suddenly we went over the edge of a cliff. Near the panels I gave an away flank when I probably should have just tried to hold the line. Piper took my away whistle as a come bye - which was even worse. Turned the sheep back and gripped. DQ.

So it was actually some of her better work, right up until it suddenly was not. And with Piper, when the run loses control it can go bad quickly, and did.

Rylee's Nursery run on Saturday was also abbreviated. She did a gorgeous full point away outrun. The lift was slow and cautious - but not as slow as at Zamora - and the sheep came off calmly but on a slight angle to the left. Unfortunately they stayed on that angle and I could not get Rylee to take my away flank and put them back on line. When she came around in front and crossed the course I retired so as not to put too much pressure on her. We need to work on that steering on the fetch line. Anyway as soon as I walked from the post Rylee regained control and exhausted the sheep rather nicely.

Piper ran late in the run order on Sunday. The run was almost a repeat of Saturday's although there were subtle differences. First, her outrun - she started to bend in early and I caught her with a redirect which she took nicely going deeper at the top. Interestingly, although we got there by different methods we lost the same three points. Her lift was very similar to Saturday's and sh again lost two points.

By this point in the trial, the sheep (which had been rerun) were pulling more strongly toward the draw than they were on our Saturday run. But Piper took my come bye flanks and though we were slightly off line due to the pull she put them back on a pretty good line fairly quickly and I was actually very happy with the level of steering she gave me. As we approached the post I over corrected the line a bit to get on the right side of the post and our turn was not as clean as Saturday. We lost nine points on the fetch but I actually thought she did better work on Sunday due to a more difficult group of sheep. Nine points was a fair deduction.

The drive was a little bit more difficult to set up but again we had it started and largely on line. Then when the sheep leaned inside Piper took the inside come bye flank and zoomed the sheep a bit much. From there it fell apart quickly. When the sheep made it back to some cattle holding pens it was another DQ. Then she calmly brought them off the cattle pens to exhaust.

Rylee on Sunday fell victim to my bad decision. Because of the fetch problem we had on Saturday I sent her left. Big Mistake. Her sheep, which were never really fully at the set out to start with, took the opportunity of no pressure coming from the draw side to take off well before she even reached 9 o'clock. From that point the chase was on. Unfortunately Rylee did not give a full speed chase and we never really got them back from their planned escape to the cattle pen draw. We did find a surprise group of ducks that wandered across the path between Rylee and the sheep though. Rylee politely decided to lie down and allow the ducks to pass losing her last chance to gain control of her sheep.

Next week, Sonoma - hoping for better finishes.