This year Trudy and I again set sheep for the Trailing of the Sheep trial held in Hailey Idaho. This is fast becoming a trial we look forward to every year. As we pulled in this year we both suffered the pains of regret for not getting our entries in to also compete in the trial. This trial runs just one class, USBCHA open. Being run in conjunction with the Trailing of the Sheep festival; this is a must attend if you enjoy sheepdog trails and festivals even if you do not have a dog ready to run in open.  It is often hard to set and compete and do a good job at both when you are limited on dogs so I made the decision to just set this year. Chuck and Vaider did not disappoint, both did fantastic for me; and I’m sure Trudy was happy with her dogs work (if not she should be).

This year we had an added obstacle course to navigate with each set, two sets of wheel lines about half way between the set out point and the set out pens. The following photos show Trudy navigating  the obstacles. The one set of wheel lines were too tall to straddle and the other was too low to go under; so the pattern was under the first over the second then reversed on the  way back for the next set.

First went the sheep… The dog would hold up the sheep while the handler ducked under the first wheel line… With the dog still holding the sheep the handler next stepped over the next wheel line… Then the handler and dog would proceed to take the sheep to the set out point. At the end of the weekend I was reminded of muscles I had forgotten while Trudy was still raring to go and felt her dogs needed another walk…Looking forward to next year.