The Scottish Inter District Nursery Sheep Dog Trials 2020 are being held at Meikleholm Farm, By Courance on Saturday by kind permission of George, Hazel, George, Carol and Andrew Mair.
Ten teams, each comprising five handlers and dogs, are taking part, with the overall winners going on to represent Scotland at the Four Nations on March 21.
The teams will be coming from the Borders, North Ayrshire, Wigtownshire, South Ayrshire, Central, North of Scotland, Arran and Kintyre, Lanark, Lothian and Peebles and the Shetland Isles. Hosts Dumfries and Kirkcudbright will be represented by Alasdair Mundell from Moffat running Tweed and Roy, team captain Duncan Robertson from Langholm running Derwen Roy, Billy Common from Lockerbie running Jimmy, and Jim Thomson from Penpont running Shilo.
Organiser Fiona McMillan said: “The competitors have all been competing from October until now to qualify in their own areas to be the top five to represent their region for this event. They are young dogs aged no more than 2 and half years old, so they are very young and gaining experience in trialling at the highest level. We have 50 dogs to run and we will be starting at 7 am sharp and run all the way through to around 5 pm. Our judge is well known trialist David Henderson from Northumberland. There are a lot of experienced handlers running, some International Supreme Champions, National Champions and a lot of local handlers. If you are interested in sheep dog trialling it’s your chance to see these experienced handlers and dogs running at the highest level of competition.”
The event is open to the public with an entrance fee of £5 per person, under 16s free. There will be car parking and catering on site, as well as ophthalmic eye testing available for dogs from Sandy McKenzie.
Fiona added: “The local committee are very grateful to the Mair family for providing the field and sheep, it is an excellent venue for this type of event. The local committee have also been working very hard to make this event a success and we would welcome you to come along.”
The event is sponsored by Muirhall Energy, Murray Farmcare, Harbro, MBM Veterinary Group, Logan Whistles and Gilbertson and Page dog food.
