| Always have had a soft spot for collies, a rough collie was in our house when I was born and I later had a sheltie among other breeds. Saw my first Border Collie in the late 1960's. They were very rare in the US then. I was studying horse training with my friend Roy Yates (internationally known breeder, trainer, judge and clinician) and a fellow student had a female Border Collie. A few years later I worked part time as an assistance trainer for this student, little did we know years later our paths would cross again because of Border Collies. This is my friend Orin Barns, also internationally known breeder, trainer, judge and clinician for horses and Border Collies
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While in college (early 1970's) I purchased my first BC, Schad a black and white male, from Carl Bradford, Bradford Border Collies, Wooster, Ohio. An early BC pioneer he brought dogs in from England and Scotland. I graduated, went to work and got married. My husband also loved the breed and we set out looking for a female. We were delighted when we saw an ad for a black and white female from English lines and we drove 5 hours to get Ginger. Did some obedience with them then it was time for a litter, the first for both of us, and what a litter! 11 puppies: 8 boys - 7 black and white, 1 sable and white and 3 girls - 1 black and white and 2 sable and white. Don't think we were not busy those first few weeks!
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| Favorite of my early dogs came from a mating of Schad to a black and white tri colored bitch, this produced 4 pups: 3 girls - black and white and 1 male - chocolate and white tri. I kept the boy and named him Chocolate Mousse. At training classes, put on by the local Golden Retriever Club at the park, Mousse was awarded top dog over some that were titled CD, CDX and UD - he was 7 ½ months old. At a little over 8 months we entered our first AKC show. After our class was awarded I was packing to go home, several people came to me and said you can't go. I did not understand why and you can imagine my surprise when they explained what he might be Highest Scoring Dog. That day he won his novice class, got his first leg toward his CD and was Highest Scoring with a score of 198 ½. What a super dog, he made training look easy. Although his sire had no real interest in livestock (worked everything else) Mousse did and got his go with sheep several times. Luckily he learned early that the horses were off limits, although he would watch them with keen interest from the other side of the fence. He enriched my life for 15 years.
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In the mid to late 1980's I saw a picture of Ch Thunderboy of Clan-Abby, owned, shown and breed by the Vos family, Clan-Abby Kennels, New Zealand. Thunderboy was New Zealand's first Best In Show Border Collie at an All Breed show. I thought one day I would own and breed dogs like that.
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| Traveled to Australia in 1991 and while there was given a copy of a magazine: National Dog, April 1991, thanks to some new Arabian Horse friends I had just made. The special feature was the Border Collie and on the cover was Smurf (Aust & NZ Ch Tamaari Go To The Devil) and Ritz (Aust & NZ Ch Lazer's Joy of Clan-Abby). I was in heaven and it reconfirmed I wanted some stock from this part of the world. I looked through that issue for someone to talk about BC's with and called Dell Keats, who at the time was the publicity officer of the Cattle, Kelpie and Border Collie Club of Queensland, she also owned Smurf. What a dear Dell was to this stranger from the US. She invited me to her home to see her dogs and a couple of Clan-Abby's that were there getting their Australian titles. She then took me to a near by kennel which happen to be Cheryl Brauers, Bawntawn. The next day Sam (Aust & Am Ch Clan-Abby The-Wizard-Of-OZ) arrived as a puppy from New Zealand. It was near time for me to go home so I did not get to visit other kennels. Can't wait to go back.
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| Corresponding with Clan-Abby for sometime, they gave me the honor of intrusting me with their first charge to the US which was Mickey (Am Ch Kiwi-Envoy From Clan-Abby CDX) arriving in 1993 at 4 months. When getting a puppy bitch from them (1995) I discovered I could travel to New Zealand for $250 US more than just shipping her and bring the baby back as extra baggage. This trip to New Zealand was fabulous, staying and dog showing with the Vos's was great fun.
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| The dog on our home page is Mickey. This was taken by my friend Internationally know Arabian Horse photograph Jerry Sparagowski. He did this for me when I was his assistance one year at the week long US Arabian Horse Nationals. We used this photo for Mickey's portrait when he won the 1995 US Pedigree Award (The Best of the Best of Breed) and it traveled the country that year along with the other Pedigree winner's to several large shows across the US. It was also used in the globally acclaimed book: The Ultimate Border Collie, edited by Alison Hornsby. It is found in Chapter 1 - Origins and History, page 16 - he got half a page. We did not know it had been used until we received our copy of the book. Another fun surprise was when I went to the New Zealand Kennel Club site to read a change in the standard, a picture of Mickey popped up. This can be found on the New Zealand Kennel Club web site, Border Collie pages and on Mickey's page as well. He is practicing agility on playground equipment while we were living in Colorado. It was supplied by Clan-Abby, he is after all New Zealand born and breed.
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We are active in conformation, obedience, agility, and herding. Goals planned with the dogs have had to be postponed a couple of times but we always keep in tune with what was going on. I was vice-president of the ABCC (American Border Collie Club) when it merged with the BCSA (Border Collie Society of America) to become the parent club to AKC; a committee member with the BCSA; member of the several other Border Collie groups and clubs; and a ring steward at many AKC All Breed and Specialties Shows.
Our philosophy is stated on our home page. You will find, among other things, some personal feelings about Border Collies, training and living with them on the BC Info page.
Currently looking for property, here in Texas, where we have some elbow room, can leave our training equipment up all the time, a place for the horses and even sheep. We have not gotten to work with sheep much and are looking forward to it. There will be a few more dogs added to our group in the next year and we do have puppies available from time to time. All inquires are welcome.
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