Hold My Beer And Watch This Tour

Okay, I have to put up a blog or people may think I have succumbed to the wild and woolly ways of sheep dog trialing. I am afraid I am too knackered to put all the photos up....be patient my pretties....they will be up soon. So use your imagination, and I will give you blow by blow account of the week of dog trialing.
Picture this.... Shaunovan, Saskatchewan.....flat field.....platform for one to look down the field...Stormy Winters on a platform....need I say more. Okay, nothing bad happened, but it had the potential of a catastrophe erupting. Jamie VanRyn hosted a great trial, and I had fun. I also discovered that Gin will try to crossover on my left side when I send her. No worries, I would fix her at the next trial heading west. I had a little more fun at the Maple Creek Sheepdog Classic...Chris's mom wasn't there so I could start my Hold My Beer And Watch This Tour. Faansi Basson was the judge for both of these trials...quick witted, but not as quick as I (quickest witt in the west). Now Maple Creek trial is a tough course, BIG hill and there is a cliff or two a dog may topple over. An afternoon get together with the Sommers, Gonnets (pronounced Gonay...who knew?), Jay (I forget his last name), Faansie and Ellmarie, Stormy Winters, Dale Montgomery and Wayne Roberts was done, and I crossed one more thing off my bucket list...chewing snuff. It was Wintergreen Mint.....very refreshing, and a great way to produce a cheap drunk! Ran the old hounds, and the young ones were not that bad...once in awhile. I thought I would send Gin on the left, and after asking Faansie to hold my beer, proceeded to watch my dog do the widest outrun I have ever seen her done. In spite of this, we tied for first and Norm Sommers and Lexie won the prize due to his outfield work.
Dale Montgomery was the overall winner with Zip (with Gin and I a close second) for the accumulated prize. Chris packed up his horses and his dogs, and I packed up my dogs (sidenote: we had left the terriers and some young border collies to be looked after by the neighbors teenage daughter while we were away...so we were travelling light) and headed of to Chris Jobe's for the night for some quick tuning up and visiting. Some quick training was done, and the rest of the night involved some light hearted conversation with Chris Jobe, Faansie and Ellmarie Basson...and a 24 pack of Alberta Draft Beer. The killer was the coffee and Baileys...well actually Baileys and coffee.
The next day we packed up, and we headed off to Cranbrook for the Canadian and Western Canadian Championships. I immediately obtained a visit to the policeman's ball in the form of a speeding ticket about 20 minutes into the trip. I and Chris trickled in about 5:30 and had supper with Ray (the owner of PineButte Ranch) and Hugh, his right hand man. The going was tough the first day, but managed to tie for 1oth position in the open with Gin. I sent her to the right and had a Oh My God Will You Not Run So Wide outrun, but cleaned up the rest of the run. All I had to do was to do another run and I would be able to play again. However, this was not to be the case. I ran her from my right, and she had another orbiting outrun, but this time I couldn't pull up my britches and keep the rest of the points. We missed getting in by 10 points. Hell, it may as well as been 100 points. That day was to prove to be a testing day, I had mucked up a run with Gin, had pulled Floss out of nursery due to a limping leg , and got bit by a dog . Would have sent a sane man over the edge. Nope, not me....I just drank the pain away.
I helped set out on top with Chris so he could run as well. When the days were done, we usually ended up going to bed late after talking to Faansi and Ellmarie about their lives in South Africa. I think Chris wants to go find himself a jackal now.
So the last day, the big wigs got to do the double lift...with the likes of Scott and Jenny Glen, Jean and Denis Gellings, Amanda Milliken, Bevery Lambert, Gayle Cochlan, Randy Dye, George (soon to be Daddy) Stambulic, Ian Zoerb and Lisa Wright. The big Weener of the day was Scott and his dog Don and Denis Gellings and Jan. Scott collected a few more awards (including from the night prior when Reba won the nursery), but Don got the biggest reward. Possibly in 64 more days there will be a litter of pups from Gin.
So with my swollen arm I conclude the Canadian portion of the Hold My Beer And Watch This Tour...keep watch for the American tour as a trip to Utah is in the near future to Soldier Hollow.