Elmarie and I are very privilege to make another trip to the USA in Sept. I am very honored that they ask me to be one of the four judges at their National Finals. We are taking Jill and Don to compete in Soldier Hollow Classic as well as the Meeker Classic. The USA Nationals is a week later and starts on the 22 Sept. We also have a few days open were I will do some lessons in Parker Denver as well as Steamboat Springs. I am really looking forward to see all the friends we made on our previous visit.

Soldier Hollow takes place in Heber city close to Salt Lake City Utah. It is a great venue that was build for the 2002 Winter Olympics. There are big stands for the large crowds, they can get between 15000 and 20000 spectators over the 4 days. The course is up a ski slope about 380m outrun. The biggest challenges are the sheep as well as the heat. They use year old ramboulettes, these sheep can be aggressive and stubborn to work as well as flighty all at the same time. The elevation is very high, can't remember the exact number now. Being at the end of their summer high temperatures can be expected sometimes in the 30 degrees Celsius. If you have a midday run your are in for a challenge. The trial starts on 4th Sept till the 7th. Scores are posted on their website as the runs takes place http://www.soldierhollowclassic.com.

One nice thing about this trial is that there is some European handlers coming to compete as well. For me not being able to go to the world trials, Africa can't get dogs into the UK, it is nice to meet these handlers and run against them. Meeker is a little town in more or less the middle of Colorado. This trial has been going for over 20 years. It is a very challenging course very much the same as our Karoo trials. The big difference is the sheep. These sheep looks like Dohne Merino's, they are crossed between Columbians and Merino's. I have seen a lot of good runs ''crashed and burned ''at the pen or the shed, when suddenly one of them decided to leave for the let out pen at the back. They will run like hell to get back to the others and seldom can they be turned.

Large crowds can be expected and some has been coming to watch for years now. The crowd is well educated and they now what is all about. Over the last couple of years, this once quiet little town has seen a lot of changes. Big oil companies has start drilling for oil and gas and a lot of natural gas and oil plants has been build in the area. How ever, the Meeker Classic is still one of the town's biggest and most important events. We are really looking forward to be there and to see everyone. The Meeker Classic starts on the 9th till the 13th Sept and scores will be posted as runs are completed at http://www.meekersheepdog.com