October 26th 2009: A Trip to W.O. Watkins' Farm
What a treat we had today - a trip to Will Watkins' place. For those of you who don't know Will, he is a 5-time Welsh team member, multi-time Supreme Finalist, and, simply, one heck of a sheepdog handler. Now in his 80s, Will is still showing us 'newbies' how to handle a dog, and he is still winning. One look at his trophy cabinets tells you all you need to know. Yes, cabinets is plural because Will has two cabinets overflowing with trophies, plus some of his more recent winnings littering every flat surface in sight. His 'trophies' range from plates to cups to medals to crystal decanters and bowls. It seems that in bygone days, trophies were plentiful - and Will won more than his fair share. Our friend, Mike, told us that he went to a trial with Will and this trial had 5 categories. Will won them all and with more than one dog. Will told us how he went out trialling one day managing to get to two different trials. He came home £100 richer. That must have been absolute fortune.

Will (W.O.) Watkins and Spot

Aside from being a terrific handler, Will is a die-hard sheep man. He breeds pedigree North Country Cheviots. Every year he and a couple of friends make the trip to Scotland to buy rams (tups). Picture this, three 80+ year olds driving 6 or so hours to Lockerbie in Scotland for a ram - and back again. This is a long trip by anyone's standards let alone a car full of 'old-timers.' But go they must for Scottish bred Cheviot tups of the calibre purchased by Will are like gold-dust in Wales. This year Will came home with one tup and three ewes. He's rebuilding his flock after selling off most of ewes last year when he fell gravely ill. Thankfully Will is 'gaining' (healthwise) as he likes to say, and it is nice to see him back to his old self.

It was sheep that took us to Will's place today. You see Will's latest ram acquisition - a beauty, we might add - has 3 new girlfriends, from our farm. Three of our Brecknock Cheviots have gone to Will's ram so next year we will hopefully have a couple of new training sheep that understand our Scottish 'Kway' and 'Lie Doon' commands. We jest. We are completely honoured to have Will let us use his ram! We are very, very fortunate indeed.

Will is very...well... particular, when it comes to his sheep. He shears the 'old-fashioned' way, although he doesn't shear very much now. Last year we had a great laugh when we were watching a TV program about the World Sheepdog Trials. This program featured interviews with top handlers like Aled Owen and Bobby Dalziel, often showing footage of the handlers training their dogs on their home flocks. Will was absolutely mortified to see the way in which these sheep in the video footage had been clipped. While we were looking at the dogs, Will could not see anything but the sheep. Will still uses hand shears to clip tails, and he demonstrated his prowess when he decided our three sheep needed their tails clipped for his ram...and he refused to let us do the task.

One does not go to Will's place and not see him running a dog or two. Today we saw him run Roy, his nursery prospect for next year. Yes, Will is still training dogs and doing a mighty fine job too. What a lesson we got in working a young dog! Humbling to say the least. Will could well be the danger man next year. Oh, and as an aside, our friend Mike is threatening to retire from nursery trialling at the end of this season if Will runs Roy and I run Bee and Cian. Yes, Mike, retire before we whip your butt! :-) -or at least Will does.

After taking care of sheep, watching Will train dogs, and popping our eyeballs back in our heads after the grand tour of Will's trophy cabinets, Will set about making tea and goodies to eat. Hmmmm...it is the first time we have had 'tea' without a teabag. Will drinks hot water...and so did we. Out of the kitchen came a fresh loaf of breed, sweet currant buns, a fruit tart, and cheese. What a feast. We have never seen anyone butter bread BEFORE they cut a piece of bread from the loaf but what a darned practical way of doing things. Nor have we ever seen anyone slice a piece of bread off the loaf starting at the bottom of the loaf but Will accomplished this task with surprising accuracy and uniform thickness. He puts bread cutting machines to shame.

Suffice to say, we had a terrific time with Will. Despite the fact he is Welsh and, well, our Welsh is....ummm...shall we say improving ? and we have to talk slowly and very loudly for Will to hear and understand us, we can still swap stories and share some banter. Will leads a simple life and shows us all that simple is good. We look forward to greeting our lambs in the spring and forever having a piece of Will Watkins' legacy on our farm. Now if only some of his sheepdog handling skills would rub off on us...

Thanks to Will for the use of his photos.