Ted and Chandra's 1st invitational ranch trial

The OPEN ranch course:

First you had to sort 5 sheep from a large group in the round pen. Some wore ribbons and collars and you couldn't use any of those for your 5 sheep. From there you had to put the sheep into the stock trailer. You could send your dog in to get them out or try to scare them out with your crook through the side window. I sent my girls (Kilt and Yoko) in the trailer. The center divider made it a bit tricky though.



You must be kidding if you think you are not getting into the trailer with the other 4 sheep!

Kilt, happy that all 5 are in the stock trailer...now to get their 5 woolly butts out of there.

Yoko after getting her sheep out of the stock trailer starting the drive in the arena. Handler had to stay at the trailer. The drive consisted of a free standing Y chute and then a Yucca tree and a panel to go through.

Pictured is Jean Singer's Tug finishing the drive and now putting the sheep into the 2nd stock trailer in the arena.

Sheep thinking about coming out of the trailer. Some dogs didn't want to jump in and run the sheep through. My girls liked that part.

From the 2nd stock trailer you had to drive down the "driveway" to the desert. This is a picture of Yoko starting her desert drive. On the other side of the gully on a hill is a panel that the sheep must go around to begin their cross drive.

Here is Yoko on her crossdrive. She has crossdrive panels to get her 5 sheep through before starting the trek back to the arena.

This is Yoko bringing the sheep around the horse corral. What a good girl she is for just 2 yrs. old. She didn't stop to sniff any snake or gopher holes today (which she is known to do on occasion).

Once they arrive back into the arena there was another drive and another freestanding Y chute on the way to the exhaust. Tricky....because the sheep want to bogey to the exhaust as soon as they reentered the arena. After the freestanding chute, there was a hold at the exhaust pen before putting them in.

Saturday in Open Ranch: 1st place Mike and Sport, 2nd place Me and Kilt, 3rd place Sally and Merle after a tie breaker with Jean Singer and Tug.

Sunday in Open Ranch: 1st place, Me and Yoko, 2nd place Mike and Sport, 3rd place, Me and Kilt

The entry fee was steep, but the paybacks were good 1st thru 3rd. Happy to say I have some change in my pockets ;0)