Dave Kennard and the sheepdog (border collie) demonstration Tree
We had a great time at the Fiber Frolic today! The first thing we did was to grab an order of the most delicioius french fries (chips for my British reader). Thinly cut, cooked to perfection. Yum.
Then we tucked in to watch the sheepdog demonstration with Dave Kennard from New Hampshire. Dave runs about 200 head of sheep and 50 head of Boer goats on his farm, and brought 4 border collies with him, ranging in age from 7-14. The fifth was home with a broken leg in a cast.
We shared some curiousity with a few bystanders as to how herding the goats would work, and they certainly handle a bit different than sheep, but the dogs knew their stuff, as you can see in the above photo, where they have herded a mixed group of sheep and goats (notice the goats going in last and thinking about dodging away) into a chute.
Only one dog is visible in the photo-on the down command, eyeballing the sheep and goats to keep them from breaking left.
Then we made our way over to the Youth Showmanship ring, to discover there had only been one entrant and they were finished!!!!
We found Boss with a nice table of product, and Clarevonne with her triplets. Boss also brought four bucks to show in the adult buck division. She asked if we would give a hand, and I readily agreed. The young firebird took Grey, I took Hjalmar, Boss took Nishak, and an unlucky goat person took Chris, who spent the whole time in the ring rubbing his bucky head all over the guy.
Boss offerred to switch, but the fellow didn't mind at all. He knew Chris-he had just finished showing two yearling does that were Chris's daughters.
Chris won first and best in show (we knew he would take the first), Hjalmar took second, and it was funny, because when the judge said, "second goes to..." I stepped forward with Hjalmar and then she said, "Nishak" and Boss and I both exclaimed, "Nishak?!?!" and then the judge looked again at the scorecard and corrected herself to Hjalmar. LOL
Nishak took third and Grey took fourth. They were the only four bucks entered.
We had a ton of fun, although the little Tree was quite put out that she was too small to handle one of the bucks. She did get the chance to carry a triplet of a doe that was being shown by another farm from the pen to the ring.
The fiber goat community here is quite laid back and everyone knows each other-especially since Boss really started Cashmere goats in Maine. Even the judges started out their goat farm with Boss' goats.
I did find myself wishing that we had brought our Nicolas-he would have kicked butt in the yearling class, even though he has not totally shed out. I have a huge bag of fiber from him already, and his look is very good. Of course, he also is from Boss' stock. :D
The goats were only there for the day-tomorrow are llamas and alpacas and it supposed to be a very hot humid day, so I think we will pass on the show tomorrow.
We had a great time at the Fiber Frolic today! The first thing we did was to grab an order of the most delicioius french fries (chips for my British reader). Thinly cut, cooked to perfection. Yum.
Then we tucked in to watch the sheepdog demonstration with Dave Kennard from New Hampshire. Dave runs about 200 head of sheep and 50 head of Boer goats on his farm, and brought 4 border collies with him, ranging in age from 7-14. The fifth was home with a broken leg in a cast.
We shared some curiousity with a few bystanders as to how herding the goats would work, and they certainly handle a bit different than sheep, but the dogs knew their stuff, as you can see in the above photo, where they have herded a mixed group of sheep and goats (notice the goats going in last and thinking about dodging away) into a chute.
Only one dog is visible in the photo-on the down command, eyeballing the sheep and goats to keep them from breaking left.
Then we made our way over to the Youth Showmanship ring, to discover there had only been one entrant and they were finished!!!!
We found Boss with a nice table of product, and Clarevonne with her triplets. Boss also brought four bucks to show in the adult buck division. She asked if we would give a hand, and I readily agreed. The young firebird took Grey, I took Hjalmar, Boss took Nishak, and an unlucky goat person took Chris, who spent the whole time in the ring rubbing his bucky head all over the guy.
Boss offerred to switch, but the fellow didn't mind at all. He knew Chris-he had just finished showing two yearling does that were Chris's daughters.
Chris won first and best in show (we knew he would take the first), Hjalmar took second, and it was funny, because when the judge said, "second goes to..." I stepped forward with Hjalmar and then she said, "Nishak" and Boss and I both exclaimed, "Nishak?!?!" and then the judge looked again at the scorecard and corrected herself to Hjalmar. LOL
Nishak took third and Grey took fourth. They were the only four bucks entered.
We had a ton of fun, although the little Tree was quite put out that she was too small to handle one of the bucks. She did get the chance to carry a triplet of a doe that was being shown by another farm from the pen to the ring.
The fiber goat community here is quite laid back and everyone knows each other-especially since Boss really started Cashmere goats in Maine. Even the judges started out their goat farm with Boss' goats.
I did find myself wishing that we had brought our Nicolas-he would have kicked butt in the yearling class, even though he has not totally shed out. I have a huge bag of fiber from him already, and his look is very good. Of course, he also is from Boss' stock. :D
The goats were only there for the day-tomorrow are llamas and alpacas and it supposed to be a very hot humid day, so I think we will pass on the show tomorrow.
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