Hindsight is 2020

Comfort Zones

   My very good friend Dianne told me once to "get out of your comfort zone".  I thought that was quite odd advice from a mentor in regard to a straight forward sport.  Sheepdogging should be readily learned and easily understood.  I thought it a bit late in the game for me to have to re-invent the wheel.  I was so wrong.  Since that moment while on my "journey", I stepped way out of my comfort zone, and have not ever looked back.  This stepping out  apparently has mirrored my personal evolution.

    This year has been like no other with my little pocket rocket partner Feist.  In my second year as an open-handler I have been committed to teaming up with the little Maserati.   She has been equally committed in trying to understand our newly forged language.   Our communication skills are starting to emerge.  What a partnership we are starting to create.  Talk about being on the same page day in and day out.  Out of my comfort zone and learning how much there really is to this sport.  Cancel *sport*, it is rather a commitment, life-style, or cavalier way of teaming up with someone from another species.

     With a lot of help from my friends, this year, we put on our first sheepdog trial.  In doing so, I have come to appreciate what it takes to contribute back to the sport that has been so generously enriching my life since I started in it.  Putting on a trial is huge.  We had so many variables that could have gone south on us,  that at the  last minute came together as if by magic.  This was truly a culmination of the trial teams' experience and vision.  I personally, was on the low end of the learning curve.  Amazingly we had a  ton of community support.  We tried to illustrate a vast appreciation to the sheep providers/producers and hoped to help them in becoming acquainted with open-field trialling in the most positive of ways.  Finally the consistent support of the open handlers that traveled so far to be a part of our first trial, was the icing on the cake.  It was truly heart warming.

Tom Zachary-Cowboy Poet/Musician

Elizabeth Baker - High Combined Winner
Haley Hunewill Esteemed Judge
Photo by Gloria Atwater

Big Field BBQ
Huge "BBQ" donated by Miles Construction
BBQ provided to us by
Borda Family Sheep

    


  I believe that I was out of my comfort zone for sure. 

Now I am just looking for ways to 

make it better for next time.

Nevada Style Trialling

Photo by WT Bruce

Photo by Mark Johnson

     Next thing on the comfort zone agenda, was to miss a couple of our tried and true favorite trials in CA and in OR, in order to  step out to a new Wyoming trial.  I said good-bye to my dogs for a week or so, while I logged work hours and they hitch-hiked their way to very remote parts of Wyoming.  I caught a flight out to Casper and had the pleasure of participating in Joni Tietjen's Slash-J SDT.   The dogs and I had the chance to log some serious hours setting out over a scorching course of three days. I have set out a bit here and there in the past.  But this time it was just two of us setting out. One day we set out non-stop for eleven hours straight.  I have such a new appreciation for the handlers who do THIS as a part of how they contribute back to the sport.  Super great experience.  Amazing for the dogs and also more data on my learning curve.

Vast Wyoming Space

     The coup de gras of comfort zone termination would be the trip I just came home from.  This may truly be a trip of a lifetime, although I hope to do it again.  We flew into another country and across the continent.

Kingston Ontario
80 Acres - SDT
Grass Creek Park - SDT

     

I think that I will 

save a blog just

for the 

Kingston experience

Needless to say, I am expanding
my comfort zone.

Addendum:  This is my sheepdog blog.  My purpose is to analyze my journey and be thoughtful about my singular pathway.  Sometimes it is easy to forget all the hard steps, all the fun steps, all the stupid steps, all the lucky steps and all the wonderfully blessed steps along the way.  I want to be able to look back and remember.