Well, we and the dogs made it over the big pond and landed safely in Manchester, England. I should clarify that "we" includes me, Mary Lou Campbell and Linda Comeau,stalwart friends and sheepdog adventurers.
We drove to Wales after a smooth extraction of the dogs out of customs. Since the thought of learning to drive a standard when on the wrong side of the road seemed a bit overwhelming to Linda (can't understand why...) ;) Mary Lou and I are the designated drivers.
Our first stop is JR Griffiths, a quiet, brillian dog handler and trainer who has a special love of brace work. His wife Bet is a wonderful, kind, fiesty lady who can more than hold her own against JR's teasing sense of humour.
Although we are practically cross-eyed from lack of sleep and jet lag, JR shepherds us out to a massive field to work the kinks out of our own dogs and see his promising youngsters on a massive flock of mule sheep down along the Welsh shoreline. The magnificence of the moment shakes us out of our sleepy fog.
Pouring rain eventually drives us back to JR's and he hands us the running order of the trial we are running in early the next morning. Names like Aled Owen, Kevin Evans, Nigel Watkins, and of course JR's grace the running order...National, International and World Champions. It'll be 1am our time at home. I hope the coffee is strong in the morning!
I hope everyone has a great time... and tell Linda I can't imagine her being hesitant about anything, so she should just get behind that wheel (not on an A-road, of course) and do it.
ReplyDeleteCheers!