The drive South and local Welsh trials

So I am warmly ensconced in the laundromat in Llandeilo where the proprietor has graciously allowed me to use her internet. Did I mention it has not stopped raining since we landed? And it is COLD! Which is why we are in the laundromat - we are wearing the same clothes every day as we didn't bring enough warm clothes!

We drove south on Sunday - breathtaking is an understatement. I will let the pictures speak for themselves - sorry they are dark...Did I mention the rain?

Those white dots way up on the mountains? yes, they are sheep. There are thousands of them.

This little lamb had an old broken leg and had moved in with the horses (probably so he didn't have to trek up the mountainside anymore).

Sometimes there are no fences....This is actually a "Main" road, if you can believe it! The sheep are smart and move quickly out of the way of the cars.

We stopped at Bets y coed "No, it is not pronounced like some 20 year old college girl! Don't ask me how it is pronounced! We visited a 13th century church and graveyard, had a walk and lunch with the dogs. Yes, it was raining, but only a bit...

Here is John posing reluctantly with Pat and Tap amidst the old graves. The ewe tree was planted when the graveyard was established to ward off evil spirits. The graveyard also has no corners, as evil spirits supposedly hide in corners. Check your corners, everyone.

Trials on Monday and Tuesday:

Over 100 dogs in each trial - no pre- entry....As you can imagine, a standard is set early and becomes more difficult the later you run. Trial one was held at the farm of the 2008 International Supreme Champion Mirk and K. Evans. Hywl (our farmer friend from the North) was looking into stud fees for Mirk for his own hill bitch and was going to inquire for me "just in case". Mirk was tremendous in the Double Lift at the International - oh, forgot to mention that we had grandstand seats for this! It was pretty amazing - 2 gathers of 800 yards....Mirk's shed was spectacular too...Will hopefully meet him to gauge his temperament - I am not ruling out a breeding...But am thinking it through carefully first - pups would be born only 8 months since her last litter and I would never think of breeding back to back normally - but Tap is fit and strong, so just keeping an open attitude as a chance like this may never come up again!

Anyway, back to the local trials....

So, you just get there and give your name. They put you in the earliest available slots - there is no formal draw. And for 2 - 5 pounds, you run your dog. They are very low key and as the day progresses many things change that would never go over in the USA or Canada! Like - sheep being grazed in the adjacent field, being moved up the road just off line to the cross drive panels (creating weird pressure), open exhausts where the sheep run to immediately upon being shed so if you don't re-gather fast enough, you've lost them etc. Nobody complains. The standard by the time Tap ran was about 10 points off - so if you made one mistake, you were off the field. Tap made it through 2 tough standards to almost finish the first trial (lost out shed sheep to the exhaust) and to finish with a good score (which I didn't stay to find out). John was watching from the sidelines where a bunch of "old timers" were commenting on the runs. They described Pat as "very powerful" (!) and Tap's outrun as "near perfection". She also had a tough ewe that kept breaking at the pen which she turned beautifully! The sheep are SO great - acting like sheep should - scared of people and respectful of dogs. Not like the kneecap sucking sheep we run on in the Northeast of the coyote fighting sheep in Canada.

No pics as it was POURING. Sorry.

Pat is not running well, I think her toes hurts. We are going to work a local flock today and then hike up to a castle - can't remember the name. I will try and take pics.

Gotta run as battery id dying and of course have no UK adapter!