Minnawarra Yard trial

Minnawarra yard trial. August 23-24th.

Minnawarra is the property of Hayden and Shelby Harries. This is the first time a trial has been held here. Minnawarra is 40 km east of Boyup Brook in WA’s South West.

The sheep were large full wool mixed age Merino ewes that were stubborn, solid and difficult to work. They had little respect for man or beast and were hard to pull up if they decided to break.

The hoodoo obstacle was the second big gather into the draft, which took the sheep away from the direction of the letouts, and they simply didnt want to go in there. So they just stood there with a ‘make me’ attitude. In the novice, quite a few handlers had to assist their dogs here. Once in the draft they just stuck to the back fence and would not flow through, so once again assistance was required. However once five were drafted off for the truck they then became very jumpy in the small pen and had to be carefully handled.

The next morning for the open event they were a little better and part way through the open final they settled and started to flow and scores rose accordingly.

They were good challenging sheep for a yard event and generally stuck together well and stayed inside the fences.

The new course was nicely set out and worked well.

The novice event was a tie and so a run off was held which resulted in another tie and another run off.

There were 21 entries in the novice and 27 in the open.

The weather was lovely, warmish and sunny with an occasional chilly wind.

Results.

Novice Judged by Doreen Hansen.

1st. Nigel Armstrong. Tumutvalley Roy. 63+78+76+65=282 Kelpie

2nd. Tanya De Bijl. Tilly. 72+69+76+63=280 Kelpie.

3rd. Nigel Armstrong. Yarralonga Fly. 67+67=134. Kelpie

4th. Nigel Armstrong. Tumutvalley Jude. 46+74=120. Kelpie

5th. Andrew Gorton. Just Murray. 61+54=115. Kelpie