I know that I don’t need to remind you of the gravity of the situation we are facing at present with this virus. However, I think that as sheepdog enthusiasts, we are very lucky in that at least we can escape from the news into our own dog world for a while.

Back in 1999, I remember being at the International and seeing Aled win Supreme Champion with Roy in Trawsgoed. In 2000 I saw him win the Supreme again in Armathwaite, but with Bob. (I was there this time myself, as a member of the Irish team!) Those were tremendous achievements and as we know he would go on later to add two more Supremes and two World Trials to the list. For me, I think the really interesting achievement was how he came back after the 2001 gap to win the very first World Trial in Bala in 2002.

So it was great to get talking with Aled Owen and find out what he did 2001. How did he retain his focus or did he set new goals to get through the year? I know that when I got out of the habit of trialing that I lost my focus and I left sheepdogs in 2001. I didn’t come back until 2015. (I don’t want that to happen with me this time.)

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