Margaret River Unofficial Arena 12th-13th Oct

Dogpro Plus

Margaret River Show

(Unofficial) Arena Trial

12th - 13th October

Report by Doreen Hansen

Photos by Karyn Buller

A big thank you once again to Kevin Silverthorne who annually provides his tricky crossbred sheep for the Margaret River Show Trial. This year they were especially toey as they were just one week off shears.

The Open dogs showed that the sheep were very workable but the sheep won the overall battle in the Novice Class, picking and standing up to the weaker dogs. Sheep were re-used at times and it seems they behaved better in their second go round for having had the first round experience. Any sheep straight off the trailer and onto the ground definitely didn't want to play the game! More-so than usual, a good run was very much down to luck of the draw.

Karyn Buller took 3 poddy lambs to the trial. It was comic to see Coshie's Charm take her focus off the job on the trial ground to try to work Karyn's poddy lambs on the sideline instead. She might have thought they would be easier!

The weather was kind...some decent rain at night, slight drizzle but mostly fine and sunny during the day and a thunderstorm on Saturday night.

Bernie had a good run with Janie other than one slight problem.....the sheep went into the pen before Bernie stepped into the workers circle and the dog wouldn't let them come out so that Bernie could rework the obstacle. Bernie yelled out to ask what to do and was told to just shut the gate. It doesn't matter how it happens as long as we get our killer for dinner!

There was no truck to transport sheep so Gibb used his trailer to transport 30 sheep at a time from the Silverthorne's farm to the trial ground and back again. The used sheep were kept separate back in the paddock and the unused sheep were safely in the yards ready for transport. On Saturday morning Gibb was surprised to find no sheep in the yards. The gate was mysteriously open and the unused sheep had mixed back in the paddock with the used sheep. Gibb had fun mustering the mob back to the yards to get his 30 sheep.

Novice (unofficial) judged by Helen Svalbe (Quindalup) & Gibb MacDonald (Margaret River)

1st. Tony Boyle. Boylee Whitey. 82 + 89 = 171.

2nd. Ivan Solomon. Perangery Di. 90 + 72 = 162.

3rd. Len Morton. Perangery Sadie. 76 +82 = 158.

4th. Jenny Palm. Brindabella Domini. 83 + X = 83.

5th. Ken Atherton. Badgingarra Champ. 73 + RTD = 73.

Open (unofficial) judged by Karyn Buller from Darkan and Carolyn Bell from Bunbury

1st. Ivan Solomon. Perangery Sasha. 90 +91 = 181.

2nd. Ken Atherton. Boylee Pick. 92 +87 = 179.

3rd. Jenny Palm. Brindabella Domini. 93 + 62 = 155.

4th. Ken Atherton. Badgingarra Champ. 96 + LS = 96.

The award for the best Novice worker who has not yet won any class went to Corey Rose.