Sheepdogs The Farmers' Country Showdown

Across the country,

thousands of farming families work tirelessly around the clock.

Bring them up, Isabel. Well done.

Here they come.

Shake it, baby, shake it.

But there's one day each year

where they get to leave the daily routine behind.

Yahoo!

These are show days...

Welcome to the Pembrokeshire County Show.

..and they come together as a community...

Salute.

..to showcase the fruits of their labour...

Had a quick look at the competition.

I'm in with a chance.

..and try to win prizes for their breed champions...

Well done. Wahey!

It's show business, folks.

..and award-winning produce.

I got first!

You had the last two jars.

There will be highs...

..and lows.

No, no. No, no, no.

..for the dedicated farmers who give everything to walk away a champion.

No way!

For centuries, farmers have faced a difficult task

of herding their sheep,

come rain or shine.

The lucky ones have a vital ally...

HE WHISTLES

..an essential workmate...

..and a steadfast companion -

their sheepdogs.

He's better than any car you'd ever buy.

Who wants a Ferrari when you can have one of these?

There are over 60,000 registered sheepdogs in Britain,

and becoming a skilled work dog is no easy task.

It takes years of relentless training and dedication.

If you look this good when you're my age, George, you'll be all right.

Farmers James Gilman and James Reid are getting ready to compete

at the sheepdog trials at this year's Hope Show in Derbyshire.

A win here will show the calibre of their animals...

Oh, no!

..and their skill in training them.

That'll do. Come here. Good lad.

This south-east corner of picturesque Cheshire,

next to the Peak District,

is home to James Gilman and his family.

Their 200-acre farm

has been in the family for three generations.

What I love about this job is every day's different.

You don't know what you're going to come across every morning.

I mean, you've got your routine jobs,

you're going to let the hens out.

Wakey, wakey.

And you're going to feed the animals and check everything round,

but you just don't know what you're going to find.

Something could be giving birth, some of your animals might be out.

You don't know what you're going to come across.

I mean, actually, it's not a job.

It is a way of life and I love it, I'm passionate about it.

I love my animals.

It's a good thing, because there's a lot of them to look after.

As well as chickens and ducks, there's 100 cows and 400 sheep.

But despite being passionate about all of his animals,

James has a favourite.

When I left school, in 1983,

my dad bought a young collie pup and we named her Jill,

and I used to take her to fetch the cows in

and you could say we were both starting our working life

and neither of us had much clue what the future held for us.

James's current favourites are two collies he bred and trained himself,

Bob and Bonnie.

You get such a bond with your dog.

They look at you as being the master,

the one that they want to work for.

They adore you for this and they'll do anything, basically,

that you tell them to.

Shall I pull them off the fence, or...?

No, she'll get moving, work them off the other way, Martha,

don't worry about it.

James's 21-year-old daughter, Martha,

is on a break from studying biomedical sciences

at Sheffield University.

-And stop her.

-Lie down. Lie down.

Her father is determined to get her working with the sheepdogs.

Lie down. Lie down. Lie down.

She's showing a lot of enthusiasm.

Both of them are, actually, together,

so that's good. That's the main thing.

Lie, lie. Come by.

Lie, lie down. Lie down!

I'd like to see her just working on the control...

a little bit more and calming everything down.

Lie down. Lie!

Come on.

I don't want to just jump in there straightaway

and tell her how she should do it, but I will do in a minute.

Lie down. Lie down.

Keep going now. Don't worry.

No, don't worry. Let her keep going.

Dad, this is no good.

I think I just don't like being told what to do.

I think that's what it is, you see.

And I'm reluctant sometimes to tell her cos I know

that she might not want to hear it.

-Just do us this gate, George, please.

-Yeah.

James's son George is also at university.

He may be studying forensic science, but back on the farm,

he's extra labour.

Oh, it's all right working with him, when he's in a good mood.

Yeah, just make sure I do all the strenuous work.

-I'm always in a good mood, George, what do you mean?

-Yeah.

If you look this good when you're my age, George, you'll be all right.

Go for that feisty one in a minute.

The feisty one.

That's it.

He didn't start off that interested in farming,

but now, as he's growing up, he's been on a shearing course,

he likes the animals, and I see now,

he's sort of getting the bug, really, for this farming lark,

and I sort of see him noticing things and being

interested in what's happening a lot more on the farm,

so things are moving in the right direction, I think.

James is confident enough to try to make George into a hoof-trimming expert.

Yes, this could do with another trim as well.

They need to get rid of the sheep's excess hoof

or they risk becoming lame.

There is one more essential member of the family -

James's wife of 24 years, Jane.

I met Jane in the Young Farmers.

I'd be 23 at the time, I was on the lookout for a partner, for a wife,

for a future wife,

and as soon as I saw Jane with her big smile and that long bushy hair,

I thought, "She's the one for me."

He was chairman of his club, I was chairman of my club,

and he came round and he actually... I came to one of the dances

and I sold him a raffle ticket and he said, "If I win the raffle,"

it was a meal for two at this restaurant, he says,

"If I win, then I'll take you."

And he won! And he actually came to take me, but the car broke down,

so he couldn't take me,

but then he did take me a couple of years later

and that's when he proposed.

She loves farming. Jane's a farmer's daughter.

It might only be advice, but mostly she puts her wellies on,

she comes out and helps me.

You'll never see Jane sitting down.

As if being a full-time farmer's wife wasn't enough,

Jane is also a primary school teacher.

I always said I'd never marry a farmer,

having known exactly what farming entails and how hard it is,

but then I went to university, spent three years in the city and thought,

"I need to get back to the countryside,

"I need to get back into this way of life." It's just lovely, yeah.

100 miles due east in Lincolnshire is another farmer,

also called James.

Together with his wife Sally and three-year-old son, Tom,

James looks after 500 ewes across 800 acres,

most of which is arable land.

James is a fifth-generation farmer

who's been training sheepdogs for the past ten years.

His love story with dogs began with a break from tradition.

My dad would never have a dog.

I don't know why. It took me ages to persuade him to have a dog, really,

and then when we got one, of course, we didn't need three or four blokes

chasing around the field after sheep. The dog did it all itself.

Away, Sam.

There's no way I could do this job without dogs.

Just no way. They're just fantastic.

They're the best work pal you could ever have.

Sally also has a farming background,

and she is an excellent work partner.

Sally does a great job with all the dogs.

She's always walking them and she feeds them.

James and Sally have been married for nine years

but their story began long before that.

When I was a youngster, my mother wanted me to go horse riding

and there was this beautiful girl

that used to win all these pony club events,

long blonde hair, called Sally.

Years later, I went to the doctor's, I was in my boiler suit,

covered in sheep muck, and Sally came over and you sat next to me,

-didn't you?

-Yeah.

-And then we started chatting.

When I left, I got my prescription, and I wrote on the back of it

and then left it on her windscreen wiper.

And of course, I thought I'd got a parking ticket!

And as soon as they got married, they started a family...

of Border collies.

We had some pups, or Jess had the pups,

she had seven pups in the October of the year we got married, 2008,

and we decided to name two of them after ourselves,

Jim and Sal, and obviously we kept Sally.

Occasionally, this has led to confusion.

You know when you call a dog to you, you say, that'll do.

Well, I'd just got the car... the dogs in the boot of the car,

I ran in the house, because we were late to get to this trial,

weren't we, and I shouted up the stairs, "That'll do, Sally."

-I got a bog roll straight on my head, didn't I?

-Yeah, I barked back.

Sally is still one of James's favourite dogs.

She's probably my most consistent dog.

She's eight years old now so she knows the score

and she's good on all sorts of sheep.

Handles them well, really calms them and stuff.

You can always rely on Sal.

I think these dogs are part of British farming, they're the icons,

some of the icons of British farming.

I think they're brilliant animals.

They're so intelligent.

It's really important for these dogs to have times like this,

just relaxing, because they're taking so much in their brain,

it's nice for them to just have periods where they don't have to

think about sheep and they just can enjoy themselves,

just like we would do, really.

As a fifth-generation farmer, James is already looking to the future.

I hope Tom does carry on,

so it's really important that he learns the trade as well, really.

Right now, though, Tom has a different problem.

If you ever have a sheepdog,

it's best to teach it to retrieve your son's Crocs as well!

Unfortunately, for all their skills,

these sheepdogs are not retrievers.

They'll chase a stick, but they won't bring it back.

Playtime over, and there's work to do.

Twice a year the sheep need an MOT -

a few basic health checks to catch any problems.

While he waits for his son Tom to grow up, his 15-year-old apprentice,

Ralph, gives him a hand with the 400 sheep.

Whoa, that'll do.

I was on my own, and then this young man came.

He's the local vet's son, bless him,

and he came one lambing time and he's ended up staying, really.

He's a great help. He comes after school and, yeah, we get on like a house on fire, really.

I'll show you how we tip one up, look.

You just lay them back like that, look,

and tip it up and we can now check its feet,

check its udder, for any lumps.

-Do you want to have a go at that?

-Yeah.

The sheep's so relaxed, look.

It's not stressing it.

Ralph comes from a very good veterinary background and you can see that in his work.

-Just take it off so it's level, yeah?

-Yeah.

He's very methodical in what he does and he's so kind to the animals.

Back in Cheshire, while there's still a lot of work to do on the farm,

Jane is off to do her weekly bit at the village church,

with daughter Martha in tow.

I learnt to bell ring when I was pregnant with Martha.

Every Monday night, we practise the bells, and every Sunday,

we ring to bring people to church. We also ring on special occasions.

The bells at Bosley are 250 years old

and it's very important to keep these traditions going.

This could be one tradition that Martha is not so keen to carry on.

I ring the bells at Christmas and at Easter, yeah,

just on special occasions, really,

when Mum...when I... when Mum makes me!

Don't say that!

While the bells toll, James's focus has shifted

to tomorrow's all-important dog trials at the Hope Show.

Lie down. Lie down.

I've been going to Hope Show about 20 years now.

I started off at the bottom, and after a couple of years,

managed to win my first open trial.

Since then, I caught the bug.

Over these years,

James's stellar reputation as a sheepdog trialer

has grown from strength to strength.

He gained the title of English Brace Champion in 2006 and he's been

a member of the English national team a staggering four times.

Yeah, that was brilliant,

and to be there, representing your country against the other nations,

it's quite a thing.

I mean, you can puff your chest out and think, "Yeah, I'm here."

James's strength lies in understanding exactly where credit is due,

for all his many victories.

It's not about how good the dog is, or how good the man is.

It's how good the partnership is.

And it's the partnership that could win this trial.

It's not a dog or a certain handler.

It's together.

This is natural instinct.

I can't train these dogs to do this.

This is natural, this is what they're bred to do.

I'm the boss, I'm the master, so they're holding them to me.

These dogs are bred to work.

They've got that in-built instinct, and it's a hunting instinct, and

we're taking that hunting instinct and we're acting as pack leader.

The sheep are prey to them and they want to get them in the corner,

obviously, to go in for a kill.

In the past, that's how they've lived, and we're using that instinct

to train them for us, basically, to work on the farm,

but also we're putting the finer movements to them

and we can go out and compete with them at sheepdog trials.

Like most shows, tomorrow's will be a family affair.

Martha's taking her Zwartbles sheep, a rare breed from the Netherlands.

I went to my first show

not very long ago, and I won first with this one,

which I'm very impressed about,

but I'm not hoping for very much tomorrow.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Hopefully she'll behave. That's the main thing.

I hope we don't have a loose sheep in the field.

Jane has no intention of missing out, either.

I've just realised there's a honey class and I'm going to enter my honey,

so we'll have to see. That's very exciting.

It's a bit scary, because when you enter your honey,

you have to shut the jar and you can't actually test the honey.

-Got to get to the show before nine o'clock, love.

-All right, no worries.

You're always hopeful. Obviously, you're entering cos you want to win,

and you're trying to raise the standard.

But also, you're trying to compete,

you want to do better than you did before, as well,

-you know, against yourself.

-It's the taking part that counts.

Yeah, with the trialling, anything can happen on the day.

I mean, it'd be lovely to get a placing.

There's about 60 other dogs running.

They'll all be wanting to win as well.

If we don't win or get a placing, we'll have a good day out.

Back at James and Sally's in Lincolnshire,

competition is also the topic of the day,

starting with some determined three-year-olds.

All the local farmers have gathered at James's place for a fun race.

Seems if you buy a big tractor, they throw in one of these for the kids.

James is just as eager to win with his dogs tomorrow.

Hope Show is really important to me.

All the trials I go to, they're all really important,

I don't just go to a trial thinking, "Oh, I might do all right today,

"I might not," I go there to win, every single time.

What's so important about the Hope Show is that it's an opportunity

to qualify for the Nationals.

I've always wanted, from the moment I started running dogs,

to win the English National,

because really my background is arable farming,

-so to come into the sheepdog world...

-Yeah, as a novice, yeah.

And get there in my time and win the National would be the...

Well, it would be the biggest achievement ever.

James is also motivated by his desire to keep the tradition of sheepdog trials alive,

something he is keen to pass on to his apprentice.

The average age of a sheepdog trialler is probably 50 to 60, isn't it?

So getting lads like that into sheepdog trialling, it's a must.

To inspire him, James has bought Ralph a little pup.

This is Mist. She's my best friend, really.

I love her to bits.

James intends to train both of them up into a winning team.

We're going to get those three sheep calmly into that pen.

-Yup.

-Yep? So we're going to need to keep the dog off them

and bring them quietly up, walking, and then try not to spook them.

Lie down. Lie down.

I'd love to win the English Sheepdog National.

It just seems like a million miles away now, but I'd really love to do that one day.

Away.

Away, Mist, away.

And success for this young pair.

Good girl, well done. That's the first time we've ever

penned any sheep before, so I'm really proud of her.

With everyone psyched for the show,

the last thing to do is to prepare one of the stars, Tom, the sheepdog.

Good lad.

If you look after your dog, it's going to look after you.

The things you do for your dog, it pays you back.

How can you repay these dogs what they do for us?

Your best work pal.

It's better than any car you'd ever buy.

Who wants a Ferrari when you can have one of these?

If somebody offered me 50 grand for this dog, I wouldn't take it.

You'll do me proud this weekend, hey? Good lad. Good lad.

At last, it's show day.

Come on. Don't want to be late today.

The Reids and the Gilmans have known each other for the past nine years,

but this is the first time

they'll be competing at the Hope Show against each other.

With two dogs each,

they'll both have two chances to show off their talent.

Bit nervous, but we'll see how it goes.

It'll be one of Sally's last times but I hope she'll pull it out the bag, and Tom, well, you never know.

Come on, Bob, get in.

And in the farming community,

nothing makes you more competitive

than the prospect of beating old friends.

He's coming off the flat into the hills and he doesn't realise

what opposition he's going to come up against, so I'm ready for him.

-Yahoo!

-Whoo-hoo!

It's the end of summer in the magnificent Hope Valley

and this can only mean one thing - the Hope Show is about to begin.

This unmissable event set in the heart of the Peak District

started life at the end of the 19th century as a sheepdog trial,

but it has grown into a celebration of the best of the rural community.

I'm the current 2017 president, and I'm only the second woman

to be president at Hope Show

in nearly 150 years.

I've been coming to Hope Show since I was a little girl.

It's our local agricultural show.

It means a lot to people in the Hope Valley and it's the one show

that everybody feels they want to make an effort to come and see.

Winning here is a great honour for the farmers,

and a potential boost to their business.

The dog trials will take place

in a ten-acre field next to the showgrounds.

It's too early for the competition,

but James Gilman and his dogs are keen

to check out the lay of the land.

All ready. Well, they're looking good, anyway.

They look better than me.

In a minute, the competition will start.

I'll put these dogs away and keep them quiet,

and then I'll just walk them out individually just before I run them

and just try to settle them down and settle my own nerves down, really.

I'm not over-worried, really.

I know I've got some good dogs and if I show my nerves, it'll...

The dogs'll pick up on it, you see, and it will make it even worse.

So, does she look nervous?

Also here bright and early is another old hand.

I'm judging the dog trial today.

I won the trial last year, so they ask you to judge the next year.

I've been judging sheepdog trials since the early '80s.

This is a nice one to judge.

Looking forward to it.

This judge, Colin,

he actually won the trial last year, and he just beat me.

But I know he's a fair judge.

He'll be quite strict.

Arriving for the first time at Hope Show,

James Reid is looking forward to making his name known on these hallowed fields.

Now then, mate, are you all right?

You'll get lost around here, you will.

-You found it up these hills?

-Yeah, yeah, it's nice, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it?

-Yes, you lucky chap.

-Yeah.

It's not all flat where we are, anyway.

Isn't it? Have you got some holes, have you?

Not quite as big as the hills round here.

Right. What do you think of the course, then?

Yes, that old bitch of mine struggles with her hearing when the tannoy starts going as well.

Anyway, enough of the excuses.

Don't start the excuses already!

So, ladies and gentlemen, good morning,

a very warm welcome to the 2017 Hope Valley Agricultural Show.

The judge has now taken his position and it's time to start.

There are 50 dogs competing today,

and everybody is waiting for James to show them how it's done.

-Lie down.

-The next competitor will be James Gilman with Bonnie.

Jane and Sally look on as two-year-old Bonnie walks out for one of her first trials.

As a young dog with lots of energy, she may be too excited,

but veteran James is eager to prove he can deliver with a beginner.

Away.

Each competitor has ten minutes to complete the course

before the bell rings.

First, Bonnie has to fetch the sheep from the far end of the field.

Then she has to drive them through a series of gates.

Now the flock needs to be divided and then regrouped.

This is called shedding.

Lie down!

Finally, with seconds ticking away,

Bonnie and James must manoeuvre them into the pen.

Away, Bonnie.

BELL RINGS

But time's up. They've just missed it.

Bonnie worked really well. I got a good shed with her,

but I hadn't enough time to settle them at the pen.

I'm sort of satisfied but I would have liked to have got finished.

I've another one to go. Not disheartened.

As well as all the dogs,

thousands of people are here at Hope Show

to enjoy the best of rural life.

There's no shortage of things on show today,

from the traditional to the unexpected.

Derbyshire's legendary Red Barrows, from the village of Barlow,

are one of today's biggest crowd pullers.

We are very patriotic, as you can see.

The red is for the red cabbage of Barlow, the white,

the white of the cauliflower, and the blue tights,

the bluebells in and around the woods of the village of Barlow in Derbyshire.

What we do is we go around carnivals in Derbyshire and shows.

We go for free, and people donate money to our charities,

of which we've raised tens of thousands

over the last five or six years.

All our work is about children and what we can do to support children.

Salute!

And if you get really exhausted after all this fun,

there's always time for an ice cream.

Or a little nap.

Back to the dog trials, and pressure is mounting on the field again

as James Reid is stepping in with Sally

for his first-ever trial at Hope Show.

I'll watch James very keenly.

I mean, he's come a long way to be here and to compete.

Very keen to see how his dog runs.

Eight-year-old Sally is James's most successful trial dog so far.

However, she is soon to retire

and James is hoping to end her career on a high.

But she's missed the first gate, and that's going to cost points.

Sally manages to regroup and is doing well.

With the run almost over, she's holding steady.

Keep going. Keep going.

-And she's done it.

-Well done, Daddy!

But time will tell what the judge makes of this run.

Sally has done well, but the heat has exhausted her.

Look, Sal's having a... she's having a paddle, look.

She's cooling off, Tom.

You don't want a Chihuahua.

No.

The Reids take a quick break to look around the rest of the show

and take their mind off competition.

76-year-old John Duncan and his collection

of hand-carved wooden models

have been a regular at Hope Show for more than half a century.

I was introduced to handcrafted things

by a PoW in World War II,

a volunteer agricultural worker on my grandfather's farm.

These were just ordinary people

who didn't really want to be mixed up in a war.

And he'd got a lot of time when he'd finished his work

and I was a nosy little brat, and that's how it all started!

I've been doing this for a good 70 years, 70-plus years.

Each of these pieces has a personal connection,

and they are not for sale.

It annoys people, these very rich people,

who think they can buy anything,

when you tell them they haven't got enough money to buy one.

It really upsets them, that does.

To create something from nothing is an achievement.

Cos people do get a great deal of pleasure from them,

because they can identify with some of the things, things from the past.

There's a tractor at the bottom.

A lot of us learnt to drive on those, my age group.

That was the first mechanical thing we ever saw.

Times have not changed that much since then.

Do you want to sit in a tractor?

Yes!

How do you open this, then? It's good, isn't it?

When we come to country shows, we have to go on every single tractor

and sit on every quad bike and every Gator.

What do you reckon, Tom? Do we want one of these on the farm?

Yeah?

On the other side of the showground,

Martha has just returned from showing her sheep.

Not a successful day at the show, but never mind.

So I entered both of these in the class

and unfortunately we didn't get any rosettes,

but it's very tough competition here at Hope Show,

so maybe next year we'll get some rosettes, but not this year.

But it's not all bad news.

I did manage to sell some of my sheep today.

A farmer's seen my sheep and wanted to buy some,

so that's been really good. So no rosettes, but some business, which has been quite nice.

Break over, it's James Reid's turn to run again,

and this time, the stakes are higher.

This will be James Reid from Louth with Tom.

Six-year-old Tom is James's best hope for the day.

Away.

He desperately needs Tom to perfect this run

if he's going to get enough points to qualify for the Nationals.

He's not happy.

He needs to settle down a bit.

He's struggling here.

The sheep don't seem to be cooperating.

Now he's got to go like Billy O to catch him.

No matter what Tom does, it's a lost battle.

Lie down. Lie down.

It's like he's just having a bit of a rough do, isn't he?

Lie down. Lie down! Will you lie down? Lie down.

He was just struggling there.

Sometimes you get the sheep, they just won't play ball.

Oh!

Oh.

Listen, lie down!

His dog's gone off now.

It's gone tired.

Is he retiring?

James decides to retreat.

-Thank you, James.

-I don't know what I could have done there.

They wouldn't just look in the pen.

That one with horns, it wasn't matching the rest.

That's the trouble with all different sorts of sheep.

I've never seen him flag like that before.

It's really hot out there, though, isn't it?

All this left, right, left, right, left, right,

it's exhausting for them. You think they're not doing a lot,

-but it's a lot of work for them, isn't it?

-Yeah, that's trialling.

And that's why we do it, really, cos it's such a challenge,

but when it goes really sweet, it's wonderful,

but it's not always that easy.

No.

It's not easy for their fans, either.

We get tense, don't we?

I've got no nails left now.

-And you're, like, willing them on.

-Yeah!

I dread to think what we look like actually watching,

because it's like concentration.

-Edge of the seats, weren't we?

-Yeah.

It was good, though.

It's almost time for James Gilman's final run,

one more chance to change the course of history.

He's a better handler than me,

so I'm hoping for another good lesson, anyway.

By watching a lot of the other runs, I know it's really tough.

We'll see. You never know what'll happen.

I've got every faith in you.

Have you? Cheers, mate.

That'll do. Stand.

The dog always tries his best for James and will do what he can,

but of course, the problem is the sheep, as you found out,

so, it depends if the sheep play the game or if they don't.

So it'll be very interesting and very exciting.

-Yes, and...

-Nerve-racking.

-Another nerve-racking run.

-Yeah.

That'll do, Bob, that'll do.

Bob is the best dog James has ever had.

Come by.

It's his fifth time at the Hope Show.

He won a few years ago, and just last year, he came second.

As Bob tackles this familiar field, he seems to have real authority.

Oh, no!

But the sheep have different ideas.

Stand. Stand.

He just gets them into the pen.

Oh, no!

But it doesn't count.

The gate has to be shut before the bell.

Oh, the bell's gone!

Come here. Good lad.

Oh, no. Oh, dear.

-Well done, mate.

-No, you did well.

What do you think about that?

He worked well, Bob did, didn't he?

Couldn't have done any more.

It's just, when you're battling against sheep like that.

Never mind. I'll have to have a few more lessons.

Come to Lincolnshire, the judges will give you a bit more time.

Yeah, only needed two more seconds.

-That's all I needed.

-Well done.

Anyway, good competition today.

-Definitely.

-Where's Lincolnshire?

It's the end of a long day and the dog trials are over.

It's been a tough one and it shows just how hard this can be,

even for the experts.

Even though we're all probably a bunch of friends,

in this country, we're so special at what we do,

because we're competing against our neighbours all the time.

It makes us better and better and better.

Hooray, good lad, David!

Doing well on the trial field puts your name out there.

This is a shop window, and if I can show my dogs off,

show what they can do,

people are going to be drawn to my dogs

and if that can help me in the future, then that's wonderful.

-Anyway, I'd better go.

-All right, see you.

And there is an unexpected surprise in store for the Gilmans.

-What is it?

-I got first!

-You did?!

-Well done!

-Yeah! Oh, my goodness.

Jane's honey has brought it home.

And your first time!

My first time, yeah!

Must be good bees.

Must be looked after well, yeah, that's it!

-Great stuff.

-I can't believe it, actually.

Yes, that's the first time I've ever won and I've actually got

a red prize card to go next to all these pairs' red prize cards now.

Red is best. He's always laughed, because mine have never been red,

you see, so now I've got a red card now.

The Hope Show is coming to an end for another year.

Time for our farmers to stand back and reflect.

I feel proud coming here today because I think the dogs have worked

their hearts out and I don't think I've done too bad a job myself,

either, with difficult sheep, we've got the job done

and I think we've kept the end up for Lincolnshire, really.

The show's been fantastic today.

The weather's been glorious, the crowds have come out

and we've put a good show on with these dogs today.

And it can only be good when town meets country.

It's been a day of challenges.

Oh!

And surprises.

Yes, I've done it!

Good lad.

And above all, it's been an inspiration.

One day, I'd really like to compete at this level.

I think Ralph has got a lot of potential.

I'm sure he'll beat me one day, anyway.

I'd really love to beat James one day,

but I still want to learn everything I can before I beat him,

because he might stop teaching me.