July 28, 2008: The Royal Welsh Show
Where did July go?

The Royal Welsh Show was on last week. What a fantastic show that is. Very agricultural! Refreshingly unlike the Calgary Stampede. OK, we liked the Calgary Stampede - dubbed as 'the greatest show on earth' - if only for the chuckwagon races, sheepdog trial and its agricultural theme. But the Royal Welsh Show is truly an agricultural showcase that towers head and shoulders above the Calgary Stampede in that regard. There were barns full of sheep, cows, chickens, goats, pigs etc, and horses galore - Welsh Cobs being the specialty here. The rings were full of activities at all times. Of course, the Quack Pack made an appearance with our favourite, Kenny.

A sheepdog trial was held every day. The first day was a competition for the 4 - 2007 national winners from England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. James McGee from Ireland with Becca stole the show. The last day was a competition amongst the winners and runners-up from each of three days of trialling. The weather was hot, hot, hot - making it tough for the dogs and sheep. It is hard to believe this event was washed out last year. The show was crowded and the ice-cream vendors did a roaring trade. Had the lines not been so long, they would have had our trade too but there are limits on just how long one will wait!

Angie went off to help promote the World Trial for a few hours. Now that can be an interesting experience when she speaks no Welsh and everyone seemed to only be speaking Welsh! Still, she had fun talking to people and with the World Trial calendars on display, she even made some sales. In fact, they had to send someone back to get more calendars as we had not brought enough with us. They are hot items!

The Royal Welsh Show is a 'can't miss' event. Even though it cost £19 (about $38 USD) to enter the show, it was worth it. It was good entertainment value for the price paid. Heck, most people spend more than that at the pub on a Friday night and that's about what it costs to take a family to McDonalds in the UK! Go, if you ever get the chance.

Since the Royal Welsh, we have managed to get to 4 trials between us. Angie has been off trialling on her own the last two weeks and it is only thanks to a satellite navigation system that she has actually found the trial fields! The Myniddislwyn Trial seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and off a very narrow road. The field itself was simply beautiful - enclosed within a rock wall that reminded us of Scotland - and offering stunning views to the surrounding countryside. The trial field itself was big with a cross drive that was very, very difficult to guage. This was Angie's first time running on collared sheep - and she managed to make a right mess of things when she shed one collared and one uncollared sheep with Roy (it should have been two uncollared sheep). Someone hollered out to her that she could re-shed so off she went again and did it properly the second time around. She finally got the sheep penned and just as Roy had been called through on the single, the bell rang for time up. That's trialling. Things did not go so well for Meg when she outrun wide and got stuck behind a fence. Once she extracted herself from there, the run was OK but they could not pen the sheep. Game over! The joys of trialling.

Last weekend, Angie headed to two trials: Banc y Darren and New Cross, while Kelvin went to Abernant which was closer to home and ironically had much more cooperative sheep. Banc y Darren is another trial set in a spectacular location. Hills all around, sheep as far as the eye could see, and superb hospitality. The course had an uphill outrun which is our favourite. The sheep were fast and furious! Angie ran Sioux to start with and she was unlucky to find herself at the top of her outrun with the 3 trial sheep, plus a 4th which had jumped out of the pens. Angie opted not to take a re-run and just got the sheep down and off the field. Sioux's outrun was super though - she is a natural outrunning dog and she doesn't waste any time getting out to sheep! Meg and Roy has goodish runs but nothing spectacular. Angie continued her string of unsuccessful pens with both dogs.

On to New Cross. Another beautiful trial course but this time a downhill outrun - definitely not to our liking. Watching a fast dog on a downhill outrun is like watching the Looney Tunes character Road Runner running away from Wile E. Coyote at such speed that it all becomes a blur. The sheep here were also fast and furious, with a penchant for turning on the dog and going right over them if given half the chance. Sioux and Roy had OK runs again but neither were able to pen the sheep. Meg managed to complete the course (yes, finally a pen) and then a good single. BUT, after the run, Angie was told she and Meg had been disqualified for gripping! Oh well.

Kelvin fared slightly better at Abenant. He ran Blade, who is starting to recover from an injury, and Tina. The trial field was a nice rolling course nestled in a very pretty valley. Had Kelvin not gone to the trial with Mike, he would never have found the trial course. It is not an easy one to find, even with satellite navigation. You really have to go with a 'local' to have any chance of finding this one. Kelvin enjoyed the trial once found. Both Blade and Tina managed to get around the course and while Blade got the pen but timed out on the single, Tina timed out just as the sheep were going in the pen. Mike wasn't so lucky with his Ness as they had to retire on the outdrive, after a very good outrun, lift and fetch.

Despite our collective non-successes, it was a good day of trialling. The weather was fantastic (hot, sunny and barely any wind), the trial fields magnificent, the sheep - well - they were not so willing, and the people friendly. Given the fact that the New Zealand rugby team lost a test match to Australia on Saturday, people were not shy to come and point out this loss to us. You should have seen one person's face when Angie responded to such news by asking in what sport Australia had beaten New Zealand! (as if she didn't know). One sometimes wants to ask the question of these very same people when it was that Wales last beat the All Blacks but we manage to bite our tongues and hide any smug thoughts that might fleetingly cross our minds. In sport, one can win one week and lose the next. It never pays to be smug (especially given the way the Welsh rugby team is playing at the moment)!

Driving home from the trials, Angie took a coastal route for a change. It is an interesting experience driving through places with names we daren't even try to pronouce such as Ffos-Y-Ffin, Blaenplwyf, and names with 1 vowel and 7 consonants! Oh boy, are we out of our depth on these! When someone asks "Where are you?" it strikes fear in our hearts at the thought of trying to pronouce these and offend all Welsh speakers in the process.

We'll be off trialling again this weekend. Overseas competitors are starting to arrive in Wales so it is good to meet some of them at the trials. Last weekend we had Swiss, Dutch, and Australian competitors present in addition to the usual crowd. It's like a United Nations convention. Bring on the World Trial!

A wee update: We just found out Roy got second at the Banc y Darren trial in Novice National - that's a class run for dogs that have not won an Open trial (yet!). Yippee! And we got a prize in the raffle. Bonus. It wasn't all non-success!