Well, it has been a long time since I first posted this thread and it has been a few days since the weekend herding event that nearly caused me to leave herding to others.

It was day two and I was Shooting Ranch Large Flock Level III while my second shooter (also a member here, btw) was shooting Herding Test Arena Dog Level I.

All was going well when I hear the judge from the other field holler "Thank You!" which we all know means "you may leave, now!"

I looked over just in time to see a sheep staggering and flailing about. She tried to stand and fell, but that at least made me hopeful that we were looking at a leg injury. Sadly, that wasn't the case and the sheep broke it's neck on a fence post.

I didn't see the impact or what exactly caused it, so I can't comment on why it happened, but it did. It was pretty tough for me to not pack up and go home at that moment, but I'm glad I stuck it out.

I wish things would have been handled more quickly, but the poor thing struggled and laid in the back of a truck for a good 20 minutes before being put down.

I did a lot of thinking and talking to the property owner and handlers. It seems that these things are exceeding rare. This was the first loss of stock in over eight years of herding on this farm.

Then, guess what, yep another sheep down. Turns out this one only got stunned and bruised a shoulder.

To top things off, a dog got crushed in a gate when the sheep got a little out of control. Last I heard, the dog is fine, just soft tissue damage.

I really, REALLY hate watching anything suffer or die, especially for the sake of a ribbon. I've got quite a few more of these events booked now so I better make up my mind how I feel about them.

All in all, they are fun when things go right, but . . .