Hard yards moving fickle sheep in squalls
SQUALLY weather made conditions challenging for the second day of the Tux South Island and New Zealand Sheep Dog Trial Championships.
The championships, hosted by the Greenvale Dog Trial Club, started on Monday at Sue and Alan Stewart’s Leithen Valley Farm, near Waikaka.
Club president Garth Cross said while the weather was good on Monday, yesterday’s competitors were disadvantaged.
‘‘The dogs can’t hear the exact whistles and that is because of the wind,’’ Mr Cross said.
‘‘Dog gets confused messages.’’
The standard was very high which was why some competitors who lost a lot of points did not get a chance to pen their sheep.
‘‘If you are not up to scratch the judge will yell out from the box, ‘Call off’.
‘‘It’s just trying to speed it up, there’s that many competitors.’’
There were about 470 dogs and about 270 triallists taking part in four events.
‘‘Some of these competitors will have up to five dogs each.’’
One thousand sheep were needed for each of the long head, short head and yard, zigzag hunt and straight hunt events.
The same sheep had been used for the club’s trial last month and had been worked again for about a week before the championships.
There had been good feedback about how wellbehaved the sheep were for contestants.
About three times a day the leaderboard was updated with the competitors who had the highest scores.
By tomorrow night, the top seven finalists for the New Zealand Championships should be known.
The South Island winners would be those who finished with the most points in each of the four events.
On Friday, the seven finalists would compete again and their two scores would be added together to find the New Zealand championship winners.
Off the paddock there had been other challenges to cope with, including the main water tank that had sprung a leak and emptied out, the generator that broke down and the deep fryer which had blown up.
‘‘We need something to go right.’’
There was good community support for the championships with different groups catering to provide meals.
Bernard Arends, of Makotuku, in Hawke’s Bay, and heading dog Tarn was entered in the short head and yards. He and a Tarn penned their sheep.
‘‘It was a tidy run,’’ Mr Arends said.
‘‘I think the sheep have been working consistently all day for all competitors.’’
Jen Williams, of Waikaia, and Ben gave up their run after the sheep took off in the approach to the pen.
She knew it was over when ‘‘the sheep shot past’’.