We Did It! New WTCH Diva! *Part 1*

   You can cry for many reasons and along this journey I have cried my fair share of sad tears and frustrated ones. Today, after getting home from the Tee Creek weekend, as I was editing photos, I finally cried some happy tears. It all came pouring out as I re-played my runs in my head, our successes, our failures, and what it took to get here. Overcoming obstacles and finding our way to this, the golden ticket so to speak...her WTCH. And then I remembered one of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes (and we all know how much I like Dr. Seuss :-)). "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I haven't really stopped smiling since. Besides, it's not really over anyway. Not by a long shot. I could get very mushy if I stayed on this path of thought but I know what everyone is waiting for is the play by play of our runs so with out further ado let's begin!


   Saturday morning the AM cattle trials were set to run back to back and such is my luck I was drawn to go first. To further heighten my anxiety I noticed as I was waiting to go in that I had drawn a group with a steer that was familiar to me from last year. This particular steer would challenge the dog if it was pressured to much. I had this big game plan about where I was going to position Diva before opening the take pen and where I would stand to influence the cows but the cows seemed to have missed the memo and just went around me, lol. Diva was a little barky and not as willing to get deep into the take pen as I would like but I can't say that I blame her when all 3 head of cattle are staring at you with their butts firmly tucked into the corner. Diva went out and rounded up the cows to start the drive to panel one which went very smoothly. We got all 3 through the first set of panels and she executed a pretty nice crossdrive. The group did stop at one point but she quickly got things going and brought them through obstacle 2. When it came to setting up for the center I opted to flank her out on a go-by and then have her come up behind me and around so we could do a parallel drive to the center. All three cows went through and her re-pen was independent and wonderful. The relief I felt at the end of that run was incredible. While I couldn't find out my score I was fairly certain that we had gotten the needed Q to finish her WTCH. I was right of course and she did it in style with a nice score of 113!

 

 

Drive to obstacle 1

 



 

 

   For our second run I drew a group of all Dexter's that worked very nicely. Diva had a nicer take pen and our run was pretty smooth with everything going through obstacles 1 and 2. Again the set up to the center was our weakest link mostly because Diva wasn't taking her away side flank all the way to the heads to turn them. One of the steers ended up ahead of the group so I had to rush over to the fence to hold him while Diva continued to work the remaining two. We ended up with two through the center but it could have been better if we had clicked a little more. In hindsight I was doing a cardinal sin of center obstacles and that was standing to close to the opening which pressured the stock and made it harder for Diva to get the job done. Despite that it was a very nice run with a score of 103 under judge Chris Caldwell.

    With the WTCH in the bag we headed back to the hotel and out to dinner to celebrate! Commence the party ;-)!

Diva and Parfait. The hottest two WTCH dogs at the trial :-)



Gorgeous and Smart!



 

Every stock dog needs a little time play