Third Annual Southern Interior Stock Dog Trials
May 21-22, 2005
The third annual SISDT has wrapped up and I would say it turned out to be quite successful given that we couldn't get started setting up the field until 10 AM Friday morning due to there being 120 cow/calf pairs on the field until then. The Skeetchestn Band cowboys did their thing and got them off in a timely manner after fixing a few hundred yards of fence that had been downed by an overload of tumbleweed gathering against the fence over the winter and then a few strong winds managing to knock the posts over during the blow. I tried getting some set up done while the cows were in the field but that was just a little frustrating with it being torn down as fast as I could get it up. Needless to say I was starting to get a little panicky on Friday when I didn't even have the spectator fence up by noon and there was still quite a lot to do. Then, thankfully, the trial folks started to arrive and all my panic disappeared as they all pitched in and we had things pretty well set up by the evening and I was able to haul the sheep in. The sheep were my crossbred Suffolk flock, about 60 in number, and worked by dogs since they were born. Not to say that they were easy though. You still needed a dog that had some push and could be in the right place at the right time to get the job done.
32 of the ewes had lambs on them and a good job at rotation of the sheep was imperative to keep the lambs happy and not bawling all the time. The holding pen was supplied by Mary Marriot of Falkland BC in the form of a really nice set of Pratley's which are invaluable in this kind of event. They are so flexible that it is possible to set up your pens any way you like. Gayle and Larry Cochlan, Terry and Kathy Towle, Wendy Legare and Brian Nelson and Fran MacPherson supplied the man/woman power in the pens along with a young fellow from my neighborhood, Matt Graham who did a fine job of accomplishing all the bull work on Sunday. Exhaust was done by the handlers when they finished their runs along with some help from some of the other handlers to ensure the sheep got where they were going. That didn't seem to be a big problem as they seemed to know where they were going as soon as they could see the pens which were quite well hidden behind a large berm of earth to the west side of the handlers' post. Don Helsley of Caldwell , Idaho , USA was our very knowledgeable judge and he did a great job of keeping things moving with almost 70 dogs to run each day. His wife, Jeanie, assisted him with the scribing along with Lynn Landry, Kathy Towle and Anna Guthrie. We kept the open outrun to 350 yards and the pro/novice outrun to 200 yards mainly to save the sheep from being too exhausted at the end of the day. It's really too bad that we didn't have more sheep as this field is very suitable to large outruns of 800 yards or more if so desired. The Big Sky Service is a Band Convenience Store and Fueling Station with Gas, Diesel and propane available along with water and a small restaurant and conveniences and groceries available. It's definitely a good fit for a dog trial and we'll see what we can do about getting more sheep next year to take advantage of the size of the field.
Pro/Novice started the runs at about 7:30 AM on Saturday morning with Percy Cowan and Tib of Courtenay, BC on Vancouver Island getting us going. The sheep were a little tough for these young dogs but Tim Ballard of Aldergrove , BC with Nick (Precious) and Grant Musgrove of Halkirk , AB managed to lay down a 67 and 72 respectively early in the trial. Grant's 72 hung on for more than half the runs until Deb Altherr of McLeese Lake , BC and Gunn laid down another 72 beating Grant out on the gather points and winding up in first place for the day. In the Open runs, Diana Gauthier of Lumby , BC and her dog Teag got us started laying down an 82 right off the start and setting the pattern for the rest of us to follow. She had a very nice gather losing only 5 points total on the outrun, lift and fetch. Nancy Stephens with her good dog RMS Ike was 7th. to run and laid down a very nice 84 score to top Diana's 82, once again raising the bar for those to follow. Then in the 17th. position came Dennis Gellings and his Jan bitch who have been doing very well in the States over the last 2 years. Jan was Reserve Nursery Champion in 2003 at the USBCHA National Finals and a very smooth running bitch she is. They laid down a beautiful 86 point run on sheep that were progressively getting heavier and heavier as the day moved on losing only 4 points on the gather for the winning run of the day. There were two more good runs right after Dennis and Jan, those being Martha McHardy's 79 point run with Geoff and following right after, Brian Douthwaite and Meg's 82 point run. After that there were no more really good runs, only good dogs trying to push sheep that were acting more like turtles than sheep. They were absolutely almost impossible to move.
Sunday dawned with another quite nice day but a breeze starting to blow. High winds were forecast for the day but they hadn't arrived as yet. The sheep were quite a bit fresher in the morning than they had been the night before and were giving the young dogs a run for their money. The first really good run was Norm Close and Gyp of Delia, Alberta who set the first score for the others to go after of 70 points. Then Grant Musgrove and Rye again laid down another 72 to win the trial for Sunday and also the overall in the Pro/Novice. Congratulations Grant and Rye . All in all I would say the sheep probably got the better of the deal on Sunday as there were 12 retires or DQs and 9 scores under 60.
The Open got started at about 1:15 PM with Gayle Cochlan and RMS Cap setting an unmatchable score of 91 on the first run with only one point off on the total gather. An amazing run and really nice to watch from where I was setting the sheep. She had 7 off on her drive, 0 off on her shed and 1 off on the pen. Nice run and, for the day, unbeatable. Then she turned around and 7 runs later with her little bitch Kate managed an 82 losing most of her points on the drive as the forecast of high winds had now started to take shape and hearing was starting to become a problem. The next dog to have a good run was RMS Cap's brother, RMS Wisp. It wasn't good enough to beat Cap by quite a bit but good enough to edge Kate out by one point. Then later on in the day with only five dogs left to run Jennifer L'Arrivee walked to the post with her little bitch, Del'mar Tess. This proved to be a very smooth run with Tess losing only 3 points on the gather 8 on the drive, 1 on the pen and 3 on the shed for a total of 85 points. Then with 3 dogs left to run Dennis Gellings and Jan approached the post and laid down the almost identical run of the day before with another 86 score. The only difference in the two runs was a 1 point off on the outrun the first day with nothing off the second day and nothing off on the lift the first day and one off the second day. Extremely consistent. For these two run Dennis and Jan won the RMS Border Collies beautiful silver Buckle for high point team overall.
The Nursery trials were held in conjunction with the Pro/Novice runs and there were 9 teams entered qualifying two dogs for the US National Nursery Finals. On Saturday, Dennis Gellings and Jake were first and Diana Gauthier and Keen were second. On Sunday, Norm Close and Gyp were first and Brian Nelson and Sweep were second.
At the completion of the last open run the awards were presented
to the top teams of the trial as follows:
Overall
Open Champion
Dennis Gellings and Jan
172 points
Reserve
Overall Open Champion
Jennifer L'Arrivee and Del'mar Tess
164 points
2nd Reserve Overall Open Champion ..Diana Gauthier and Teag 151 points
Best
Drive, Open
.Dennis Gellings and Jan
Best
Shed; Open
..Gayle Cochlan and RMS Cap
Best Gather; Open ..Gayle Cochlan and RMS Cap
Overall
Pro/Novice Champion
Grant Musgrove and
Reserve
Overall Champion, Pro/Novice
..Norm Close and Gyp
133 points
2nd
Reserve Overall Champion, Pro/Novice
.Deb Altherr and Gunn
132 points
Best
Pen, Pro/Novice
Brian Nelson and Sweep
Best
Drive, Pro/Novice
...Norm Close and Gyp
Best Gather, Pro/Novice ..Brian Douthwaite and Nick
Following are the top ten scores of each trial, each day:
| Saturday Open | Sunday Open | ||||
| Dennis Gellings | Jan | 86 | Gayle Cochlan | RMS Cap | 91 |
| Nancy Stephens | RMS Ike | 84 | Dennis Gellings | Jan | 86 |
| Diana Gauthier | Teag | 82 | Jennifer L'Arrivee | Tess | 85 |
| Brian Douthwaite | Meg | 82 | Bob Stephens | RMS Wisp | 83 |
| Martha McHardy | Geoff | 79 | Gayle Cochlan | Kate | 82 |
| Jennifer L'Arrivee | Tess | 79 | Dave Ellison | Imp. N'Ell | 77 |
| Martha McHardy | Ceri | 74 | Brian Douthwaite | Queenie | 76 |
| Brian Douthwaite | Queenie | 73 | Bob Stephens | Jess | 74 |
| Lorne Landry | Robbie | 72 | Diana Gauthier | Tan | 70 |
| Terry Towle | Tia | 68 | Diana Gauthier | Teag | 69 |
| Saturday Pro/Novice | Sunday Pro/Novice | ||||
| Deborah Altherr | Gunn | 72 | Grant Musgrove | 72 | |
| Grant Musgrove | 72 | Norm Close | Gyp | 70 | |
| Jeanie Helsley | Em | 68 | Jennifer L'Arrivee | Brynjac Josie | 68 |
| Dennis Gellings | Jake | 68 | Brian Nelson | Sweep | 66 |
| Tim Ballard | Nick | 67 | Brian Douthwaite | Nick | 65 |
| Diana Gauthier | Keen | 65 | Dennis Gellings | Jake | 64 |
| Jennifer L'Arrivee | Brynjac Josie | 63 | Norm Close | Robbie | 63 |
| Norm Close | Gyp | 63 | Penny Ohanjanian | Quill | 62 |
| Terry Towle | Sage | 61 | Deborah Altherr | Gunn | 60 |
| Corey Perry | Ben | 60 | Brian Douthwaite | Raz | 58 |
For photos, please click here.