Winter Warm Up Sheep and Cattle Dog Trial - Elkhorn, NE

[Debbie Meier]

Information and entry form for the Chance Ridge Winter Warm Up Sheep and Cattle Dog trial is available at IHDA.net. The trial will be two days, January 10th & 11th, 2009. Sanctioning will be with IHDA, NSDA and USBCHA. Questions should be directed to John Holman, john.dog4ewe@navix.net.

 

Debbie Meier

President, IHDA

[jdarling]

I'm not sure if I should post this question here, or if I should make a new thread, so I'll post it here and see what happens.

 

I went to the entry form for this trial. It says:

 

This will be a great opportunity to get those dogs out again and to get ready for Denver! Chance Ridge is an awesome 76,000 sq. ft. heated building. The indoor arena (300’x150’) will give your dogs a great chance to get out and stretch their legs! The cattle trial will be points and time (Wyoming style) and the sheep will be straight timed. Open sheep will be a barrel pattern with chute and pen.

 

Are the dimensions on the arena correct? That's 100 yards x 50 yards? What does it mean that sheep will be "straight timed"? It says this is USBCHA sanctioned. Does that mean that you're eligible for points if you place in open or nursery in the arena? Or are sheep run on another field?

 

Jodi

[NRhodes]

It says "Questions should be directed to John Holman, john.dog4ewe@navix.net." So I imagine if you contact him that he can tell you....

[Laurae]

I can't speak to this trial in particular, but at the National Western Stock Show in Denver referenced in the notice, "straight timed" means exactly that--there are no points taken away for style or lack thereof. The winner is the team who has completed the course in the shortest time, second place is awarded to the team that finishes in the next-shortest amount of time, and so on. There are chutes, barrels, and the post to navigate around, and a pen. The arena is pretty small and it is indoors (with deafening noise, crowds, and walls on the sides). It is true that such trials present their own challenges for the dogs and handlers. There is no nursery class at the National Western Stock Show, but the open class winning runs count for USBCHA points. Whether they should count is an issue that has been debated before, but I sure wouldn't mind another discussion about it...

[jdarling]

Thanks. I'll start a new thread.

[AgileBC]

Chance Ridge turned out to be a great venue for a winter trial. The arena is 150' x 300' and had a 6" deep (or so) soil/sand mix floor. The temp inside was comfortable and there was radiant heating and bleachers for onlookers. The arena also has warm indoor bathrooms.

There will likely be another trial held at Chance Ridge in the future.

 

Here are some photos of the arena at Chance Ridge. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a photo of inside the arena

http://www.chanceridge.com/Event_Center.html

[Debbie Meier]

I have the results and a few more pictures posted at the IHDA.net website, the direct link is here: http://waynescustomleather.com/Chance_Ridge_Results_Pics.htm.

 

The arena was awesome, I just wish is was in our backyard, we would be getting some horses rode! It turned out to be a good weekend overall tucked inbetween snowstorms. The trial gave quite a few handler/dog teams a chance to warm up for Denver and for the rest of us it was great just to work with different livestock some place other then home. Between the snow, ice and cold there's not been dog working around here other then basic chore work.

 

Deb