Bill Davisdon & Grassvalley Flake - NSW Winning Reps of the Ted Gaby Interstate Challenge

About 30 years ago I started off sheepdog trialling after an injury playing rugby. I started off in the encourage with a Kelpie bitch by Chris Stapleton’s Watch called Elle and a border collie dog I got off Ron Seabrook from Euchua called Larry.

My interest started after a very enjoyable weekend at a Pip Hudson school and from than on I was keen to have a go.

First efforts were fairly dusty but I hung in there and gradually started to improve. As time went on I went to a couple of Greg Prince schools and talked to and asked lots of questions of the good triallers and some better results started to come. Took a while to win my first Open trial and since then I’ve been fortunate to represent Australia twice, win a National Open and 4 NSW championships.

Grassvalley Flake is a 5 year old white bitch bred by Grant Cooke in Western Australia. She won the National maiden and NSW improver championship when she was a bit under 2 years old and hasn’t done much trialling since due to COVID and work commitments.

She is a honest dog who tries very hard for me with decent walk up force for a dog that is kind to its stock. She is a nice dog to work and is happy to comply to my commands whilst still having a great desire to work.

John Perry & Bredbo Ash - National Sheepdog Champion 2022

Having spent my early working life as a shearing contractor and managing 14,000 acre Bredbo Station, I got started in 3 sheep trialling in about 1984 working station dogs up until then. My first real success in trialling was with a great bitch, Wynella Lady – we won the Encourage at NSW Championships at Molong followed by the Maiden at the National Sheepdog Trial Championships at Hall, ACT in 1985.

The person that probably influenced me the most around trialling was Ted Gaby – I picked up his habit of recording every single trial and all my results over the many years I’ve been in the sport. I’ve also had some memorable wins, representing NSW on 12 occasions, Australia 6 times and captaining the Australian team 3 times.

More recently, I was successful at the National Sheepdog Trial Championships taking out the prestigious Duke of Gloucester award for winning the Open trial with Bredbo Ash. This was on the back of winning the National with Ash’s father Boco Raffa in 2018. The National is the ‘Melbourne Cup’ of dog trialling – the one everyone wants to win and I’ve been lucky enough to win on 4 occasions now. You’re not beaten if you get knocked down. You’re only beaten if you don’t get back up.

Dog of the Year & Handler of the Year & NSW Winning Reps of the Ted Gaby Interstate Challenge

From the age of 16-20 I did a small amount of trialling, then had to concentrate on work, and then came back trialling at around 36 years of age. I have had success with a variety of dogs, mostly bred by myself with the MGH prefix. MGH Rabbit and MGH Daisy were probably my most consistent performers for 2022. My highlights for 2022 were winning the Australian Championship, Commonwealth Championship, Australian Dog of the Year, Australian All Round Stock Dog Champion, Queensland Championship, Tasmanian Championship, Supreme Australian Championship and to top it off, Captained Australia to a test series win over New Zealand. All these achievements gave me the points to win Handler of the Year and Dog of the Year (with MGH Rabbit) for the NSWSDWI.

One person who played a major role and who I have gained a wealth of knowledge from is my father, Pip Hudson. I spent a fair bit of time with Greg Prince in my younger years and also Lou Noble used to call into Dad’s when I was growing up and would give me tips. I also gained a lot of knowledge from secret to my dogs’ success is clean strength and I also feel my success is attributed to the Hypro Premium Grain Free

Laurie Slater and Paul O’Kane by watching them work dogs and talking to them.

I believe food, they work exceptionally well on it. - mickhudson.com.au