Ongerup Arena Trial.

Ongerup Arena Trial

Ongerup is a small town app 430 Kms south of Perth.

Three sheep trials have been held at Ongerup for a number of years and the trial has always been known for its ‘challenging’ sheep and weather than can get uncomfortably warm.

This year the temp reached a maximum of about 30c over the three days so was quite bearable. The nights cooled down quickly to become extremely chilly, which is fairly typical for the area.

The sheep were smaller than in previous years and a little easier to handle. Most of the time however, they lived up to their reputation by being fast, flighty, unflockable and extremely suspicious of the dogs and the obstacles.

In contrast to previous years though, this year about 18 teams managed to pen their sheep from 165 entries.

They seemed to be at their worst for the open final, with only half of the finalist managing to pen on their second run, and the others having a real battle to get them over the bridge, an obstacle that the sheep must had decided had sharks underneath, as getting them to even put a foot on it was quite a challenge.

The worthy winner of the open was Wayne Hall and Avalon Sox. Wayne has not done a lot of trialling in the past year or so and his dog was a little keen to say the least.

Results.

All BCs unless otherwise stated.

Novice, judged by Doreen Hansen.

1st. Peter Gorman. Badgingarra Jem. 89

2nd. Jean Hydleman. Ramulam Maddie. 69 Kelpie BC Cross.

3rd. Jenny Nolan. Daheim Lady Susan. 65

4th. Frank Sutherland. Rocky Chick. 60

5th. Tim Foster. Gwaerfeyn Dibley. 57.

6th. Frank Sutherland. Rocky Judy. 55

7th. Colin Cosh. Sting 49.

8th. Dave Lacey. Akoonah Henry. 46.

9th Jenny Whitelock. Jandoree Kinta. 44.