Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Trials
Every year in the Heber Valley over Labor day Soldier Hollow plays host to the international sheepdog trials. Being that we do in fact own a border collie we've made a tradition of going every year. If you have never been, the object of the trials is to herd 5 sheep down a mountain, pass them through a series of 4 gates, separate them 2 and 3 and still maintain control and then push them into a gated area- all in 13 minutes. What is even more impressive is that these aren't your normal every day sheep, these sheep are wild mountain sheep that very rarely come in contact with people and dogs. The dogs follow commands based on a series of whistles given by there master, they move the sheep from point to point following the directions. Its really cool- even if you don't own a border collie (who are the main competitor's). Along with the sheep dog trials they have booths, food, Frisbee dogs, splash dogs, and everything border collie. Its truly amazing how smart these animal are.
These next pictures are the splash dogs. They have forty feet of dock space to run and then they launch themselves into a pool (trying to retrieve a toy) seeing how far they can jump. The furthest hit about 24 feet! What we didn't know was any dog could enter. If we would have known earlier we would have brought Thome and Will (my dads lab who in fact was truly born for this sport- he loves the water) and let them compete.
And our border collie.. (who is in deed afraid of geese which was the closest he ever got to herding anything- we had to pull him out from behind the chicken coop at uncle lanes!) But he sure does love to stalk his Frisbee!
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