Dozens of dogs, hundreds of sheep and thousands of spectators flood Soldier Hollow every Memorial Day weekend for the annual competition, where the world’s best sheepdogs are tasked with corralling ewes from the mountainside.
After a tiebreaker Monday afternoon, May 26, handler Scott Glen and sheepdog Pip took home the gold medal, with Milton Scott and his dog Bob nabbing silver in the 21st year of the Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Classic.
Longtime participants and event organizers say the victors must wrangle the toughest sheep in the country to earn a spot on the podium.
Competition manager Carol Clawson said the sheep, who live in the west Utah desert, are seasoned in self-defense.
“These guys are fending for themselves out in the desert, in the mountains, fighting off predators,” she said.
Unlike most other sheep the dogs might encounter, she said these ones don’t always take kindly to being herded.
“Most of the sheep back east are what we call farm flock,” she said. “So, they are used to being in pens, being moved by dogs. They’re just so different. Some people, when they first come here, if they’ve been east or even overseas, they don’t know what hit them.”
Clawson and event announcer Matthew Heimburger said that after a first visit to Utah, some participants have opted for altitude training before returning to the competition.
“The guy from Wales was up in Canada for a while, and he was working on similar – as close as he could get,” Clawson said. “And the guy from Ireland went up to a sheep ranch in Wyoming to get altitude and sheep closer to this.”
“Just like you would for cross-country skiing or biathlon,” Heimburger added.
“Yeah, they prep for this,” Clawson said.
Dog handler Marianna Schreeder agreed Utah sheep are in a league of their own.
She and her dog Star traveled from Georgia to compete in the Sheepdog Classic for the third time. Schreeder said Star trained hard to show her skills at Soldier Hollow.
“They [the dogs] need to be in very good shape and always listen to you,” she said. “And it really takes a number of years to train them to this level. It’s a lot of pressure, and these sheep are very, very difficult.”
The invitation-only competition draws 65 dogs each year, mostly border collies. The sheepdogs are judged on how well they take control of the livestock and how steadily they bring them into a pen – always keeping an eye out for stragglers. The championship round requires dogs to find and gather sheep from two different locations.
Heimburger said herding is an art.
“It’s a bit more like a floor exercise routine in gymnastics,” he said. “It’s not just the last trick. In fact, some of the most important ones come early, and the audience eventually comes to realize not just to be excited about the pen, but to be excited on good work all throughout, because that’s what the judge is rewarding.”
Typically, Soldier Hollow welcomes around 15,000 spectators over the course of the four-day event.
The event isn’t just about herding. The Sheepdog Classic also features music, food, vendors, and demonstrations like sheep shearing and duck herding.
