May 21, 2009: Home from Scotland
I'm back from the bonnie braes of Scotland :-( I love Scotland but as the midges start to fly up there, it is nice to come home to Wales. And home it is as we move into our new farm in just a few days.

Before I share the exploits of my sojourn to Scotland, the good news first (or rather, the best news). Kelvin was unable to go to Scotland as he had two job interviews. The first interview went well and two days later he walked into his second job interview and was offered the job from the first interview! Starting September he will be teaching at a really cool, internationally oriented school in Swansea. He is going to head the English Language Arts programme and teach 7 and 8 year olds. Thrilling news! Kelvin loves kids and loves teaching so he is absolutely stoked about this new job. I don't quite know all the details yet...

Now, Scotland! Oh what a trip I have had. There are few things sweeter in life than to be able to spend 12 days in Scotland on the braes (hills) with dogs, sheep and fellow enthusiasts. I would have to say I like this better than I like chocolate...and that sure is saying something (coz anyone who knows me knows just how much I love chocolate). Ironically, Kelvin packed me a bag full of goodies (chocolate, M&Ms, liquorice allsorts, amongst other things) and I diligently brought all but one bag of M&Ms home with me. Bobby (Dalziel) loves M&Ms so between he, I, and Bob Simpson, we polished off a packet. (more on Bob later). I think I worked so hard that I had no appetite for sweet things...well, I confess, I never missed a dessert (pudding) at mealtimes.

What took me to Scotland was a series of trials put on by Bobby. This is our annual 'can't miss' event as it is an opportunity to run 2 trials a day every day for 10 days. There are few places in the world where you can get this kind of experience, let alone test yourself on tricky courses. Of course, it is also nice to meet up with some of our Scottish friends. Last year was our first experience of these May trials so it was going to be fun to see if we could be any better at navigating Bobby's courses with a year of trialling experience under our belts. Sadly Kelvin had to withdraw at the last minute and that left me to try and fill his shoes on the set out front as Kelvin had promised to help Bobby set out sheep. At the last minute Roy was thrown in the truck alongside Jamie, Meg, and Sioux. Bee, Cian and Steffi came along for the ride as well.

Cian and Steffi had a terrific time as they got to spend the entire time playing with a young pup called Tam. All three of them played their hearts out in a small field. At times I'd catch glimpses of them rough and tumbling around and the next minute they would all be sound asleep huddled together. For the most part they all got on fine. At night they were happy to go indoors and play all night long too! Only once did I have to get out of bed at 3.30am - and again at 5.30am - to quieten them down. I was not happy being dragged out of bed at that time and they all got the message loud and clear. After that, they were too tired from their busy day of activity to bark and carry on like maniacs during the evening hours. Thank goodness!

I won't do a blow by blow account of the trials as this would bore you all to tears. In brief, the trialling was terrific. We ran on small courses in the morning where the field is tricky as drains criss-cross the course and the sheep could be unpredictable in the direction they took after jumping the drains. In addition, the rushes have grown since last year so judging the lines was quite difficult. Factor in the fact that the sheep have not been dogged quite as much as usual and this made for some really challenging situations. Some days the sheep were just plain unmanageable and many a run was ruined right from the get go. Meg was quite unlucky in this regard, as were others.

The afternoon trials were held on the brae. The left side brae is a 450 yard outrun and the right side of the brae is a 650+ yard blind hunt (where the dog and handler cannot see the sheep until the dog gets to the top of the hill and lifts the sheep). The sheep can bolt from the set out post on the brae (sometimes through no fault of the dogs) so the dogs have to be quick to cover. With lighter sheep this year, the sheep were difficult to manage during the lift and fetch phases but seemed to settle during the drive (although there were some packets of sheep that never settled). One day we ran on gimmers. In the small field they were wild! Meg got her sheep around the course in 6 minutes and I thought that was horrendously fast until Bobby and Jamie did it in just under 5 minutes. Neither of these two dogs hashed the sheep but were running just to keep up! This was handling by the seat of the pants...and in this regard, Bobby gave us all a lesson in what a good handler looks like as he took the top 3 placings. It was exciting to watch a master at work...

Of course setting out these sheep and trying to hold them at the post was sometimes nigh on impossible. For one of the most inexperienced handlers in the field, I was quite ill-qualified for the task!! One quickly learns two things when setting out sheep: 1) there is no tolerance for error and 2) many are quick to criticise (and are very vocal about it) but completely unwilling to lend a hand to someone who is obviously struggling. I was summarily fired from my duties on day 2 of the trial (and rightly so) - and believe me, no-one was more pleased than me to be fired! I was rehired the next day and given some additional tutelage that made things a bit easier. It also helped that Roy started to know his job so we could better manage the task. It was not an altogether pleasant experience but as the days wore on, I quite liked setting out the sheep as I got to see a dog's run from a completely different perspective. The only downside from spending so much time setting out sheep is that towards to end of the ten days of trialling, I found I was really tired and struggled to handle my dogs in the trials quite as well as I would have liked. Still, Bobby needed the help and I was pleased to help him.

There were some hilarious moments up in the pens on the brae. We had a couple of days of terrible weather and the pens were slippery. Most of the time I was struggling just to stay on my feet. Trying to get the appropriate number of sheep out of the gate became quite the challenge. Sometimes I'd just hurtle myself at the sheep and hope they split where I needed them to split. When I did that, I also hoped I would make it to the side of the pen to grab hold and not land upside down in the mud and sh*t. On the second to last day, Bobby came up to help. My job was to get 4 sheep out of the pens and he would send his dog for the sheep to be taken to the right hand side of the brae. This worked well as it sped up the setting of the sheep. The pen was so slippery I could barely stay upright. After one particularly desperate fling of myself at the sheep, I managed to shed the right number of sheep and get them safely out the gate. It wasn't pretty but it was effective. As I looked over at Bobby, he was giving me the big thumbs up. One thing I learned while working in the pens was how to put my crook to good use. Another thing I learned is that I need to do more work on my shedding. I know I am a pathetic shedder and my experience in the pens highlighted this even further!

On the trialling front, I did much better than I could ever have hoped for. All of my dogs ran well at various times, and we had our bad moments too. Meg ran well at the front end of the trials, while Roy ran well at the back end as he got fitter. Sioux, whom I have not done a lot of work with this year, surprised the heck out of me and was fairly consistent throughout. She won two of the trials, while Meg got her second open win as well. All-in-all my dogs got in the money 25 times! That was a shock, but a nice shock. Jamie also had 14 placings over and above this (including 3 wins). He was handled by Bobby, who clearly handled him better than I could have. While it was nice to be in the money for a change, it was more rewarding to be able to see improvement in my dogs and in my own handling skills. Last year I remember seeing sheep hurtling down the hills towards the chute and I would be shaking in my boots. This year, while my heart was skipping a few beats, I was more excited to see if I could stop the sheep in their tracks long enough to direct them through the chute rather than around (and around and around) it. It didn't always go quite to plan but it was a lot of fun trying.

One of the best things about these trials is getting feedback from Bobby. He would mention something about my run that did not go so well, and from then on, I would try to do that part better. Sometimes I'd miss a gate because I was going for a tight turn and he'd say, "at least you were going for the win." One person said to me as I came off the field one day "that was a bad miss" as I had narrowly missed a gate with Roy. Other than thinking this person to be quite rude, my overriding goal for that particular trial was not to play it safe! I risked and lost, that's part of trialling, but rather that than not risk at all. I always learn something new when I go to these trials. This time I think I learnt more off the field than on it.

Now, I promised I would say something about my friend, Bob Simpson. Bob is 82 years young (although he looks 65) and you should see him handle a dog! He puts us young whipper snappers in our rightful place. I first met Bob at Bobby's at the end of 2007. He is a kind and softly spoken man. Over the last year he has lost his sight in one eye but you would never know it. I was waiting to run after Bob and I was marvelling at his line on the cross-drive. It was dead straight and could not have been more perfect. Unfortunately for Bob, his dog did not take a flank command when asked and the sheep slipped around the gate. As he walked off the field he asked me if he had got his gate. My heart was in my mouth as I quietly said "no, Bob, I'm afraid you didn't but it was close." I missed the same gates during my turn... Bob ran a better line on his cross drive without being able to see it than I could run and I had no excuses. Despite his failing vision, Bob is ever cheerful, always a good sport and ever keen to congratulate those in the prize list. A super role model and a man to admire and respect.

Shiela Dalziel worked like a trouper! One night she cooked for 15 people, catering to the finickity eaters and kids as well as the masses. She is a truly amazing person who knows so little of how admired she is. I keep telling her that I think of her as the Ettrick Valley's equivalent of Susan Boyle (from Britain's Got Talent). If ever there was a prize for the most humble person who seeks neither fame nor glory but quietly goes about her life, Shiela would get my vote. She deserves to win the lottery but she has already won something bigger than any amount of money could buy - respect and adoration from many. I know there are many people around the world who have spent time in Ettrick who will echo these sentiments. Thank goodness she does not read this blog or she would be blushing right now!

Well, that's just a wee taste of my time in Scotland. It was hard to leave as Ettrick has become my home away from home. Jamie was as thrilled about leaving as I was. He cried and hollered and put on quite the performance all the way to Langholm (that's about an hour!). I must have been away a long time as Bailey did not get her nose out of her dinner bowl to greet me on arrival back in Wales. I seem to have been forgiven now as she is sitting on my feet.

Time to move into our own home now and that's what we'll be doing early next week. Yahoo! OK, the actual process of moving isn't going to be fun but having our own place again after a 2 and a half year hiatus is going to feel good. We are still pinching ourselves that Wales is home now. We have landed in the mecca of trialling and we're here to stay, at least for a while. WOW! We will, no doubt, be further humbled at the next trial.