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How was Hop Bottom?


kelpiegirl
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I didn't go. I had to make an emergency run to Ocracoke on Monday, got back Wednesday, and I was not getting back in my car for love nor money to make the pro novice on Thursday.

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Bummer :rolleyes: Hope your car is back in shape now! There will be more trials, and hopefully, we will finally get to meet some day!

Julie

 

I didn't go. I had to make an emergency run to Ocracoke on Monday, got back Wednesday, and I was not getting back in my car for love nor money to make the pro novice on Thursday.
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It was a lot of fun, at least after I was finished running Annie :D .

 

We certainly were lucky with the weather. With the trial field nestled between 2 mountains, it can get hot, still, and sticky, but the weather was cool for the novice classes and just started to warm up over the weekend for the open runs. The field is small but tough because of the pressures, the occasional noisy train, and the infamous dead zone where many dogs seem to lose their hearing (right at a drive panel, no less!). The sheep were manageable but got cranky as the days went on. It's really a pretty site with a nice stream edging the trial field. Dogs can relax in this stream after their run (or fall into it as Jill did one year when she went a little too wide on her outrun! :rolleyes: ).

 

This year there was a silent auction to benefit the 2007 National Finals and bidding was hot and fast. It was a great success. They were also selling raffle tickets on a beautiful painting titled "The Mascot" to benefit the Finals. The local historical society & church provided food during the event, and there was a short church service Sunday morning.

 

Certainly a lot of work goes into this trial, but the hosts Cheryl & Dick Williams and Walt Jagger are alway gracious.

 

I enjoyed myself immensely. :D

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For the novice classes they ran 3 adult hair sheep. The pull to the exhaust was not as hard as it has been in the past. The sheep all weekend were not easy to set. Dawn Boyce from Ga set sheep for the novice class and then stepped up and set for the Open class, when JP was unable to come. Penning was fairly easy for most handlers, but if you missed it on the first try, they liked to play ring around the pen.

 

For Open class, they ran 2 adults and one lamb. The lambs were from a different flock and did not always want to participate. In Open the dogs had to have enough presence on the sheep to move them, otherwise the sheep just said "I don't want to go that way" and wouldn't. Many retires occured in the dreaded Dead Zones, and many handler's had the sheep return to thier feet on the drive.

 

Sunday it was HOT. The ground was dry and hot and the heat was radiating up from the ground. I have never seen the creek so low as it was this year. I hope they got some rain last night and this morning. They sure could use it.

 

Cheryl, Dick and Walt always put on a wonderful trial. This year was no exception!

 

Nancy O

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