Zamora 2011




Open #1



Open #2

 As you can see from the photos, there's lots of room for things to go wrong at Zamora, when they do. There are fences beyond the hills to the right and behind the setout. If you send left, your dog and your sheep can make it almost all the way to Sacramento, about 28 miles away, without much impediment. Most hands, including me, sent right.

Day 1 started out with a blanket of fog delaying the start for hours. The fog gave way to a decent, cloudy day that gave way to rain, and once it started, it stayed. With over 80 dogs to run in a day and a half, the fog brought about course changes; no shed, and a time clock shortened from 11 minutes to 9. It became a 90 point course, and only 3 hands that I'm aware of  even touched the pen rope. No one completed a pen, precious few got their drive points, and those that did were the ones that placed with scores in the low 60's. Welcome to Zamora.

Day 2 started well, on time, clear, but cold. The trial committee did a great job organizing, we were almost caught up with just a few left-overs from Friday to run through before the second page of open 1 could begin. Even though the conditions were improved, the running was not, and dogs continued to struggle uphill to find the sheep, downhill to remain on course, then around the drive with just 3 soggy yearlings testing dogs with every step. Then the rain set in again. Many more panels were missed than made, and once again there was not one successful pen. The pen itself was across the creek from the running. If you finished your drive, you were tasked with bringing 3 unwilling sheep across a fairly rain-swollen creek. Most didn't make it. In fact, just like the day before, most didn't finish their drive.

The Hand's Camp

To be continued with Open #2