Dunbeath crofter Jasmine Grant pleased with overall result in Four Nations nursery sheepdog final
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Local sheepdog handler Jasmine Grant feels honoured to have represented Scotland at the Four Nations Nursery Sheepdog Trials at the weekend.
The Dunbeath crofter was one of 10 sheepdog handlers from throughout Scotland selected for the team which came second in the competition. They made the long journey down to Slindon, Stafford, to compete against top young dogs from all over the UK on Saturday.
Many of the team members were previous national and international winners with a wealth of experience on the trial field and extensive work experience with dogs and herding.
"It was a great honour to represent Scotland at the Four Nations Nursery Final and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience," said Jasmine.
"We were pleased to have gained second place in the team event. I was warmly welcomed by the other team members and there was a real sense of camaraderie among the handlers.
"It was good to meet up with handlers from the other three nations too and to spend a very sunny but cold day watching the very best of young nursery dogs from Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland."
The other team members were Chris Toner, Laura Hinnekens, Julie Hill, Sandy McCulloch, Dean Aitken, Michael Gallagher, Stuart Davidson, John McKillop, and John Patterson, reserve.
Jasmine explained that the course was challenging with an outrun of around 400 yards and a drive equal to that of many national courses designed for older dogs. Twelve minutes was allocated for each competitor which was in itself challenging on such a big course.
Scotland were runners up in the team event with 994 points just behind the winners, Ireland on 1084. Wales were third with a score of 982, while England was fourth with 894 points.
The local sheepdog handler ran her two-and-a-half-year-old, Irish bred bitch Pat.
Jasmine said that Pat ran well on quite cheeky cross-hogs and handled the sheep steadily on the course, gaining her fetch and drive away gates and a good line on the cross drive, however, they just slipped past the cross-drive gates losing valuable points.
The cross-drive gates were extremely difficult to navigate with many competitors missing them on both the inside and outside of the gates.
The hogs had been re-run for the second half of the competition making them challenging to hold in the shedding ring.
Repositioning them gave the opportunity for a gap and Pat wasted no time in coming in on the two sheep and holding them to the judges’ satisfaction.
With time of the essence, the sheep were quickly reunited and then penned with only seven seconds to spare. Pat was awarded 126 points.
“I’m very pleased to have been placed 16th overall," said Jasmine. "Hundreds of dogs start off the nursery trials from all over the UK and Ireland each October and points are gained for each trial in order to gain a place in the regional team.
"I was delighted to qualify to run at the Scottish Nursery Finals which was held in Selkirk two weeks ago and then to go on to be awarded fourth place of the 10 who went through to represent Scotland.
"Pat ran consistently throughout the season and she’s such a grand wee dog to have around – always happy and just loves the trials."
This is the second time Jasmine has represented Scotland at sheepdog trialling, the last time was in 2005 when she was part of the Scottish Team which won the coveted BBC One Man and His Dog series final in 2015 at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.
The individual winner’s award went to Kevin Evans with Kennox Meg from Wales (162), second was Shannon Conn with Yellowhill Chip from Ireland (158) and third was Angie Driscoll with Kinloch Sweep from Wales (155).
