The rest of October is a bit of a blur this year. We moved on from Montpelier to the Edgeworth trial. The trial field was moved this year, not on the big beautiful hill that I love so much. The course was smaller but still plenty challenging. With all that had happened, i have to admit i wasn't much in the mood for dog trialing and i think it probably showed in the results we got. I ran all 3 dogs and i don't think we placed a single time. I thought the sheep were a little less even than in the past, with running one hair sheep and two wool ones, as the home flock continues in the process of switching to hair sheep over time. But really, no excuses, just not a really stellar weekend for us.
We moved over to Quiet Acres for a Tuesday/Wednesday trial after Edgeworth. I'd asked Sylvia to let me take over running the trial for her, so that kept me quite busy. It was a good couple of days with tons of help and support and fellowship. I think Dan would have liked it. Zac and Bill placed both runs, with Zac winning the second day. I think Zac likes the field and sheep there. He's run 3 times there now (we skipped the second day last year) and won 2 of those. Funny how some fields and flocks just suit some dogs better than others.
Next up was the final trial to be held at Jan Thompson's Water Cress farm. She's done 5 years of trials and declared this to be the last. It was sort of a mixed weekend for me. There are some folks there that i really enjoy, we had some decent runs, the weather was good then not so good, just kind of a "winding down to the end" sort of trip over all. The scenery was gorgeous as usual. Thanks to Jan for 5 great years.
Next up, a clinic this coming weekend in Virginia Beach and then off to the Rural Hill trial the following weekend. Fall sure is a busy time around here!
