By Lisa McPherson
*Photo credit to Anne Knegt
As I was checking Facebook one day, I noticed Tracy Hinton and Kevan Gretton posted a Fall Fun Day on the OBCC FB page. It looked like it was going to be a lot of fun. They were going to set up a course that focused on “farm chores”, something I typically don’t get to do since I don’t have access to a farm. I signed up right away!
The day started cool and cloudy but Tracy and her husband Tim had arranged a roaring fire for warming, with lots of coffee, tea and goodies and as the day went along, the sun came out and it was very pleasant! You never know what sort of weather Mother Nature might surprise us with at the end of November.
Upon arrival it was evident that Tracy was into the Christmas spirit. She had the barn decorated with fun signs and some of the obstacles were aptly named “Snowflake Alley” and “Santa Clause” cones. We even gave the Y chute an earworm “Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Chute”.
Tracy and Kevan had taken a lot of time organizing the course for the 24 handlers that signed up for the day. They had a flock of 32 lambs that were very amenable to the course put forth. It was set up like typical “farm chores” with a bit of everything and they were both on hand to help out the handlers if needed.
We started the course gathering the flock and sorting off 4. For some dogs, gathering a larger flock proved to be a bit of a challenge but we were encouraged to go in and help if needed. We then took the 4 sheep to the handling system and loaded them in the back. Working in the smaller farmyard was certainly different than working in a big field.
From there we went to the barn where there were 4 sheep from a previous run resting and we had to take them out of the barn and exhaust them to the main group in the graze. Where you put your dog really made the difference to whether they came out of the barn or not! We then crossed the driveway and did a big gather of 4 sheep that were being hazed at the top of the main field by the previous handler and put them in the barn to rest until the next handler’s turn. This proved to be quite difficult. The sheep being exhausted wanted to stay with their friends waiting in the handling system and not go into the barn. The dogs and handlers really had to read the sheep to get them away from their friends and moving them one way had a huge advantage to moving them the other.
Next came dealing with the sheep in the handling system. It was great practice to move sheep without the dog. The front of the handling system was loaded with sheep and we were to let those ones out and reposition the ones in the back to the front. Some people hadn’t used a handling system before but everyone was able to get the sheep into their next position. It was observed that the first sheep was the luckiest and coveted the most space.
Then the “chore” section was done and we had our working group. Tracy had set up a number of obstacles in the main field that we could work on while the next handler and dog started the chore section of their run. The main field had a line of trees decorated with snowflakes that we could drive or wear the sheep through.
Then we moved onto the snowman tunnel – the fence and a hog panel with a tarp over it made the tunnel. It proved difficult when the wind picked up a bit in the afternoon and the tarp flapped! The sheep needed more of a push to get through and if the dog was a bit ahead of the last sheep, she would see the dog through the panel and bolt back out of the tunnel.
The most fun was the Santa Claus cone weave. Tracy had found some felt Santa’s, put them on some large construction cones and we had to weave through them. Your timing had to be perfect or it was a mess! Based on the discussion around the fire, a lot of us spent some time trying to get the sheep around those cones!
Almost done! Our last obstacle was to put the sheep through the jingle bell chute. Some of the sheep noticed the jungle bells and were quite sure they were out to get them so didn’t want anything to do with the Y chute! Whew! Done! Now you just had to settle the sheep and convince them to stay up on the hill for the next dog.
It was a fantastic day! Tracy and Kevan had laid it out so that it kept things going, we never had to wait for changing the sheep, we got to try our hands at different skills and see how what we do on the trial field fits together with actual farm work. Everyone was so supportive of each other and if we couldn’t figure out what to do next, everyone kept you going in the right direction. I highly recommend going to a day like this if you can, but beware - if you’re like me, you’re going to really want a sheep farm!
Thanks to Tracy and Kevan for providing us the opportunity to be a farmer for a day!