Herding in Beauty

On a December Sunday, Bryna and I went to the farm where we train. We had had some snow on Friday night, and on Saturday it warmed enough to clear the roads, but then the temperature plunged dramatically. By Sunday, it was seriously cold. But the sun was brilliant, and the sky was bright, bright blue--a New Mexico desert sky over the rolling green hills of Virginia. We started in the 100ft x 200ft (30m x 60m) pen with 5 sheep. The snow was an unbroken 2 inches or so. Bryna was learning to stay back, and even dropped back herself to about 15 feet when I took the sheep into a corner. She sat nicely when I told her to sit (most of the time), and all 7 of us took those opportunities to catch our steamy breaths. One of the best parts was very pedestrian: most of the sheep poop was under the snow, and what wasn't, froze almost immediately. Never before had I gone herding, and NOT felt the need to bathe the dog.

We did figure 8s through a pair of panels in the middle of the field. That was a great situation to teach her to stay back when I turned the sheep tightly. We worked, with some rests, for a bit over an hour. We practiced next to a pen with sheep. That's hard for us because Bryna wants to know why all of those other sheep aren't with our flock, so she goes over to "get 'em up" too. A young puli arriving was also a distraction, but these were both good learning experiences.

Then we had our first experience in a pasture (probably 4-5 acres or 2.5 hectares). Would she hold them away from the barn? Would they all go tearing around, leaving me floundering in the snow? Again, we had 5 sheep.

No, she held them to me, and we worked the fenceline, did figure 8s around brush piles, crossed over some big ruts (or baby gullies), and worked for another 20 min. One of the 5 made a determined break for it, and Bryna took off to bring her back, but responded well when I called her back, after the ewe locked herself between some brush and the fence.

It was so beautiful: blue sky, white pasture, red berries, tawny tufts of grass, bare trees, green jackets, blue-green hills, beautiful dog, and flowing motion--around and around, back and forth. Light was everywhere, even in the blue shadows. I wanted, not a photograph, but a painting. If I could make my own Christmas card, I would choose the scene at the farm that afternoon. I hope the scene I described rests your mind with peace of the season.

A hot shower felt great to me. And we were both warmly, gently tired.

Merry Christmas from--

Lynne Corn and Bryna (Briarpatch Impromptu, CGC, HCT)

of Falls Church, Virginia