Bryna and I had spent 10 minutes trotting through the parking area's grass as she carried a saddlebag I estimated to weigh about 12 pounds. In the crisp morning air, with the coating of frost on the ground and just beginning to disappear in the sunniest areas, every beardie present had a serious case of the feel-good zooms.
The sheep were a tad lighter than we were used to but not that much. The judge had asked the handlers to go in, and stand aside while the sheep were brought in to the holding point. This was too much for Bryna: sheep moving in her area and she wasn't in charge. She bolted, and I brought her back. I was afraid that that might count as an NQ before we even started, but they let us continue. I had gotten some good narrative description from Cindy Mendonca about what constitutes a re-attempt (and therefore potential for big loss of points)of a gate and when it is better to give up and go on. So I don't think we made that mistake. But Bryna was pushing too hard and the sheep were zooming, and too many dogs had been allowed to stand too near the pen.
Most significantly, Sharon Prassa pointed out that I had stopped, or nearly stopped, several times on the course and that that was when things had fallen apart. "On the next run, no matter what you do, KEEP MOVING!"
Our second judge was Gerard Baudet. It seemed odd to be getting the judge's instructions laced with a thick French accent. He seemed very kind, and I had met him before. The 3 Started handlers had gotten together and asked the judge if we could have the stock handler stay with the sheep until we picked them up, and 2 of us wanted the sheep in the arena before we entered it, and one did not. The judge said OK to all of this, including the 2 to 1 variation. The first run went and I knew it was an NQ. Since it was Sandy Weiss handling (she had a young bitch, not quite 2 yr), this was not comforting.
We went in, and Bryna stayed with me. I set her up, and sent her on a come-bye. She crossed over (gulp) but got control of the sheep very quickly, bringing them straight to me, but quite fast. I got her to slow down a teeny bit, and we went toward the Y chute. Some noses were ahead of me, but the all went through it. Boom--on to the next one, the Z chute. One sheep split off, zooming off to the right, with Bryna hard after it. I yelled at the judge "is that an attempt"? No response or sign. I yelled again, and again no response. Here came Bryna with the extra sheep. Since I was fairly sure that the other 2 sheep would not count as an attempt, I decided to gamble that this extra wouldn't either, and kept going, putting all 3 (or at least 2 of them) through. On to the runway/chute. All of them went straight through.
Then to the fence line with a slight back step, to help Bryna come around them. I knew she was crossing their line of travel but, phooey--there was no other way to keep them from bolting to the exit gate. All of them went straight through with me packed so tight that I stumbled (but kept moving), and Bryna went without command around to cut them off from bolting to the exit gate.
We went to the far wall, and the 3 sheep all but bonked their noses on the 5. I was holding my breath. Except for at least 2 occasions of a single sheep going AWOL, I thought we were doing well, and a hundred times better than our first run. I stopped the action with Bryna between the sheep and the gate, with the sheep about 15-20 ft from the gate. "Stay, good stay, gooood stay, goooooood stay" I whispered. My mind was saying "Oh, please, Dog, oh please, oh please." I all but tiptoed to that gate, holding my breath. I got it open, and waited for a count of a few seconds. Then, softly, "come by", and off she flew. "Slow, slooow." Here they come. I slammed that gate shut behind the 3rd sheep and let out a yell that may have been heard by sheep 2 farms away. Maybe even down in Bedford. Then as I opened the handlers' gate to let Bryna and me out I gave another whoop, and developed a smile that almost cracked my face. I sat down with my arms around Bryna, and was so happy I almost cried. I didn't much care what our score was, or whether we qualified. I knew that we had both done the best we possibly could, and if that wasn't good enough, well, then it wasn't. I remember several people came up to take a picture of us, and I was giving Bryna the special post-trial treat: beef vegetable baby food.
People pounded me on the back and I remember applause. They petted Bryna, and both Loralie Van Sluys and Sandy Weiss (the other started handlers) said nice things and congratulated me very warmly. Not to my surprise, I found out very quickly that our outrun had disqualified us. The crossover was 8 points off, and in addition, I had done something I didn't even know I had done. I lost 3 points because when I sent Bryna, she was about 6 feet from me. I didn't even know I had done this, although I do know the rules on this point. Sadly, if I had realized that she was too far away I could have fixed that. The 3 points was crucial, because our overall score was 77, which tied for HIT with a run by Sandy Weiss' Chip in Advanced. If I hadn't lost those 3 points, we would have not only passed, but been HIT.
Poor Gerard. He felt so bad when he handed out the ribbons. He said some really, really nice things about us, and how sad it made him not to be giving us a ribbon.
Anyhow, both Cindy and Sharon gave me great advice that was crucial, Bryna and I did our best, and now, even though we didn't actually pass, I know that we can pass and I am happy. So, as I told Gerard:
IT'S THE BEST FAILURE I'VE EVER HAD.
With thanks for many kind wishes,
Lynne and Bryna