Hypro Pingelly Arena 2024

Report by Nan Lloyd and Marianne Rogers
Photos by Nan Lloyd

The most memorable thing about the Pingelly arena trial was the weather. Bitterly cold wind and freezing rain for most of the weekend. It has been a fairly mild dry year, so it was a shock to the system. Having fairly difficult sheep to work didn’t help at all.

 Thankfully, there were a number of warm fires to stand around, and some nice hot food nearby.

The Novice and Improver sheep were merino hoggets that were inclined to split but could also stand up to the dogs. The freer moving dogs suited them better, and there were a few reasonable scores.

The Open sheep were freshly shorn, mixed age merinos that were big and could run fast. They were difficult to settle and made constant breaks back to the let-out.

Getting them through the first two obstacles was not easy, but handlers who managed to get them to the pen found they went in quite easily.

Entries were very high. 58 in the Novice with 16 scores, 64 Improver entries with 20 scores, and 91 entries in the Open with 20 scores.

There were not a lot of scores in the open due to the ring-off system which was used.

Pingelly has a large recreation centre near the trial grounds, so most triallers could enjoy a lovely meal each night to commiserate about the conditions and the sheep.

Some words from our Open judge Marianne Rogers.

Well done to the Esperance club for being willing and having the confidence to run an Encourage event.

Sheep can be testing and even a few top triallers have recently experienced young dogs out of control as instinct overrode their training.

For people new to the sport it can be overwhelming to go out on the trial ground.

Setting them up for some success, however that is managed, is essential, both for them and for our sport.

It was wonderful to see Trish with Binnaburra Bubbles have such a lovely run on the really tricky sheep that had been challenging for so many open dogs.

The encourage run was allowed twelve minutes instead of the usual fifteen. Bubbles had the sheep at the mouth of the pen when the timer sounded.

Good on judge Frank, he said to carry on! Bubbles penned the sheep.

The run was extra special because of the set backs and adversity that Trish has faced.

Providing encouragement plus congratulations on results for new workers is a huge benefit for the sheepdog community. All the spectators we get at Pingelly saw the genuine enjoyment as we shared the happiness of Trish with her Bubbles.

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Encourage
Judged by Frank Sutherland

1

Trish Genoni

Binnaburra Bubbles

Novice
Judged by Tanya deBijl

	Handler	Dog	Score
1	Daniel Beard	Boonining Digit (K)	69
2	Rose Cassidy	Floyroy Bella	59
3	Per Einarsson	Karridowns Zoftie	55
4	Sue Doherty	Echo Park Apache	52
5	Marianne Rogers	Amarillo Artimyst	49
6	Marianne Rogers	Marionvale Aykeira	48
7	Des Davies	Marionvale Kip	44
8	Steve Wallace	Floroy Jess	43
9	Terry Martino	Marionvale Bo (K)	35
10	Sue Doherty	Just Patterson	31

Improver
Judged by Yvonne Haynes

	Handler	Dog	Score
1	Peter Gorman	Pendalup Don	94
2	Gordon Curtis	Binnaburra Marvin (K)	88
3	Simon Leaning	Marionvale Woody (K)	85
4	Tara Herbert	Marionvale Tess (K)	84
5	Peter Doherty	Ramulam Sixpence (K)	80
6	Nan Lloyd	Kumbark Ruffy (K)	78
7	Steve Wallace	Pendalup Pete	77
8	Gibb MacDonald	Ellie	75
9	Rose Cassidy	Floyroy Bella	74
10	Rose Cassidy	Nolans Shana	72

Open
Judged by Marianne Rogers

	Handler	Dog	Round 1	Round 2	Total
1	Simon Leaning	Marionvale Di	78	82	160
2	Brett Smith	Cooks Jake	71	85	156
=3	Simon Leaning	Marionvale Woody (K)	81	70	151
=3	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Charlie (K)	68	83	151
5	Daniel Beard	Boonining Digit (K)	77	65	142
6	Ivan Solomon	Perangery Trish	65	75	140
7	Gordon Curtis	Binnaburra Marvin (K)	65	74	139
8	Grant Cooke	Grassvalley Palmer	77	41	118
9	Peter Gorman	Pendalup Lucy	68	47	115
10	Per Einarsson	Karridowns Zoftie	74	35	109
11	Gordon Curtis	Kumbark Scotty (K)	86	X	86
12	Gordon Curtis	Kumbark Tina (K)	81	X	81
13	Grant Cooke	Grassvalley Bluey	74	X	74

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