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My first Border Collie: It’s easy to get smitten by the
Border Collie breed. My first dog was a young dog that I bought at the
auction mart in Sennybridge. It wasn’t a Border Collie / sheepdog sale,
like they have now, just the weekly livestock sale. I tell the story of
Dan in the Border Collie resource pages of this site. Since then I have
had the pleasure of working many pretty decent dogs.
Setting up my shed
I arrived at the site of this years International Sheep Dog Trials
on the Wednesday afternoon, the day before the start of the competition.
As per usual, there was great confusion about where I was to be set up.
"Don't worry about a thing"' I was told, "We'll get it set up and it will
be ready for you tomorrow".
The agreement that I have with the ISDS is to be supplied with a small
6 by 8 foot garden shed, set about 5 feet off the ground, next to the
judges box, and then a supply of power. Quite simple really! And if it's
too much bother, that's not a problem either. I just won't turn up. That’s
not a big deal either. Actually, it’s very straight forward really.
(I should mention that the ISDS has been great to work with since Norman
Lorton took over and this is the only reason that I continue to make
this journey).
Instead of leaving the field, and the crew assigned to setting up my
shed, I stayed in my car and wrote the start of the script, but within
view of the, yet to be set up, garden shed. It was some time later that
the crew had time to move my shed into position, but I had lots of writing
to do and so my time wasn't waisted. I then noticed my shed moving off
across the field on the front of a loader and so I watched with interest.
Instead of being set up anywhere close to the whole proceedings, I was
once again to be shoved off to the side, passed the grandstands, behind
the spectator area, and with a hopeless view of the field and the success
of any run. Completely useless!! Now was the time I had been dreading and
anticipating, so off I went, smile on my face, for my annual confrontation
with the event organizers. And so a miserable half hour ensued.
I asked one of the helpers to phone Meirion Owen, who I knew would be
at the ISDS Council meeting, and get some direction as to our agreement
and what I was supposed to have to do my job. After the phone call to
Meirion, everything fell into place and the shed headed off to its spot
beside the judges box, in clear view of the whole proceedings. I was now
set up for the 3 days, thanks to the understanding of all the helpers.
(The problem here is a lack of communications. I am definitely not high
on their list of priorities, and don't expect to be, but a wee bit of
planning to fit in my needs should be part of their plan. Not a last
minute resort after everything is set up and there's no where for me
to go. The bottom line here is, I don't have to do the trials if they
don't think it's worth while. I've got lots of completely useless things
to do back at HQ. But if they want me to work on their trial then give
me some consideration. It's really that simple!!) Everyone came through
for me, but I doubt whether I ever win too many friends along the way.
The trial field was a mess with all the rain they had had and lots of
work had to be done to get things ready.
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