LEXINGTON, Ky. — It's all about showing their skills for the roughly 300 border collies participating in the 2021 Bluegrass Classic Stockdog Trial at Masterson Station Park.
Now in its 60th year, the Kentucky Border Collie Association nonprofit event is one of the longest-running, larger and more prestigious trials in the country, drawing top handlers from across the United States and Canada.
What You Need To Know
- The event is in its 60th year
- More than 300 border collies are competing
- The winner moves on to the national finals
- Dogs battle it out in five categories
“This is our 60th year, and we had to cancel it last year, so we really wanted to do something bigger and better,” said Marianna Schreeder, KBCA president. “I was a little reluctant to advertise this too heavily because of the pandemic, so we really didn't. We had a hard time this past year — everything was rough — everything’s behind schedule, and you can't get this and can’t get that.”
Schreeder said the Lexington Parks Department has always been an essential partner of the event for advertising, but this year she asked for the promotion to be scaled back.
“The parks department is so great about helping us advertise,” she said. “They just kind of put it out there and send everything out to different people. I just asked them not to this year because I can't end up with a whole bunch of people, and then there be an outbreak and people will freak out. Then, of course, two weeks before this year’s event, the governor waived the mandate on outdoor gatherings. But you know, nobody has a crystal ball.”
The tradition of border collie trialing in central Kentucky goes back at least as far as 1960, as documented in a Texas newspaper article about a local handler named Weldon Harrell, who ran at the American International Kentucky Blue Grass Championship Sheep Dog Trials at Walnut Hall Farms in Donerail.
This newspaper was preserved by the heirs of the renowned handler Ray Parker, who won the trial five times between 1960 and 1969. The trials took place at Walnut Hall through 1983 before moving to the Kentucky Horse Park. The event has taken place at Masterson Station Park’s Ruffian Field since 1996.
The Bluegrass Classic is recognized as the trial with the most entries in the nation and as the top stock dog event east of the Rocky Mountains. It is also the only trial in the east that offers the challenge of western range sheep, and the trial sets the standard for efficiency, hospitality and sportsmanship, according to the KCBA.
Sheepdogs are used by those responsible for flocks of sheep because they offer the safest and most efficient means of carefully moving sheep from one location to another, according to the KCBA. The sheep are not afraid of a well-trained sheepdog.
Sheepdog trialing demonstrates a handler and dog can achieve the task of herding. Points are gained by moving the sheep under control, in straight lines and with minimum excitement. The skill is in the handler and dog working together as a team.
The sheep used for the Bluegrass Classic Sheepdog Trial are western range sheep used specifically for the event. Because of this, it provides a unique challenge for dogs and handlers, testing the skills of even the most experienced.
These range ewes make the Bluegrass Classic a challenging but fair test of skill while being exciting and educational for spectators.
Winning at the Bluegrass Classic earns the dog and handler an automatic bid in the national finals and an invitation to enter a trial in Utah later in the year called the Soldier Hollow Classic. Even other dogs attend the competition. Mary Lou Hayden, of Indiana, was in Lexington with Meadow, her 14-year-old Belgian Tervuren, more commonly known as a Belgian sheepdog.
“She’s retired,” Hayden said about Meadow. “She just likes to come to watch.”
The sheepdog competition goes like this: Handlers send their dogs to herd sheep, via command, from a hilltop downward, through gates, and eventually into a corral. Sheep are broken up into groups of three for each dog. When the handler is not issuing commands, the border collies work independently using natural inherited instinct. After hearing an order, the dog decides how to execute the command without disturbing the sheep. After performing the demand, the dog reverts to making the decisions.
Most border collies are at least 10 months old before their ability as a stock dog may be assessed. Getting a dog to the “open” level of competition requires at least two years of training, so most of them participating in the event are between 3 and 9 years old.
“We bring in all these sheep from Montana,” Schreeder said. “Winning the competition is also about bragging rights. There’s not a lot of money for the winner; it’s not that kind of sport. We don’t have tons of sponsors or things like that.”
The competition began on Wednesday, May 12, and volunteers began erecting the thousands of feet of makeshift fencing and spectator tents the Sunday before.
“There are two dog parks here at Masterson Station Park, and the city is kind enough to give us one of them for the week,” Schreeder said. “In another field, we use it for the dogs that aren’t quite as experienced as the others.”
Dogs competing in the event are scored on a variety of attributes and skills, including outrun, lift, fetch, drive, shed and pen. Full marks would mean a dog received 100 points.
Dogs competing in the Bluegrass Classic do so in five categories: open, nursery, open ranch, pro-novice and novice-novice.
Open is a sanctioned class through the United States Border Collie Handlers Association and is open to all handlers. Dogs in this class are scored on the longest outrun, lift, fetch and drive, cross-drive, and pen and shed.
The Nursery class consists of an outrun of approximately 250 yards, a lift, a fetch, a full drive and a pen.
The open ranch class consists of an outrun of approximately 250 yards, a lift, a fetch, a full drive and a pen with a time limit of six-to-seven minutes. This class is open to any handler with a dog that has never competed in a class higher than open ranch with its current handler, excluding nursery, or open with any other handler.
The pro-novice class consists of an outrun of approximately 200 yards, a lift, a fetch, a drive through at least one set of panels and a pen with a time limit of four to five minutes. This class is open to any handler with a dog that has never competed in a class higher than pro-novice with its current handler, excluding nursery or open ranch with any other handler.
The novice-novice class consists of an outrun of approximately 100-150 yards, a lift, a fetch, wear through at least one set of panels and a pen with a time limit of three-to-four minutes. This class is open to novice handlers with any dog that has never competed in a class higher than novice-novice with its current handler or pro-novice with any other handler.
“Border collies are made to excel at this kind of thing; they were bred for 200 years to do this,” Schreeder said. “We don't care what they look like. The [American Kennel Club] has this standard about what dogs are supposed to look like, and we do not believe in that at all. As far as this stuff goes, what do looks have to do with it?”
Mario Anderson contributed the video portion of this story.