MONTPELIER STATION — Robyn Mann’s dog Belle can’t compete in sheepdog trials: When Mann picked the pup with one blue eye 13 years ago, she also picked the hearing-impaired one in the litter.
Though her athletic pursuits are limited to ball and Frisbee, Belle loves to watch her fellow border collies, hips high, noses low, as they dart around the pasture, pushing trios of sheep here and there.
“It’s instinctive in these dogs, they just love to watch,” Mann said.
More than 80 dogs a day can compete in the Virginia Border Collie Association’s trial, which tests a dog’s ability to fetch, steer, turn, pen and separate sheep, all at a series of mostly whistled instructions from a handler.
The event will finish up today, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Attendance costs $5.
The trials are part of a circuit, with the top 20 percent of finishers earning points toward entry in the finals.
“It’s open to anything that wants to compete, but at this level, it’s the border collies that excel at the tasks at hand,” said Debbie Johnson of Gladys, the association’s secretary.
Many of the dogs competing are working farm dogs, she said.
Her family still uses dogs on its farm, for example, she said, and there’s no more effective way to gather a flock of sheep that aren’t especially motivated to come in.
“You and somebody else’s army may not be able to get up the whole flock,” Johnson said.
Elsewhere vendors sold food, sheep-related items and other fiber products, from rabbit skins to gadgets for turning wool to yarn.
Rather than sheep, Kristina Haas Lawwill raises Angora goats on her 40-acre farm at Free Union.
She was selling goatskin rugs, as well as Angora wool, in states ranging from the way it came off the goat to dyed and carded (a process whereby the fibers are brushed out prior to spinning into yarn). The latter runs $3 per ounce.
The goatskins result from goats that have to be killed after accidents or goats that aren’t producing well.
“When the goat doesn’t produce well, it becomes a rug and a fajita,” she said.
Her market is fairly niche — people who spin wool into yarn — but the Montpelier event is first-rate, she said.
“This is a nice festival for local folks who have small farms and cottage industries,” she said.
Emily Kalweit of Charlottesville was at the festival hoping to see an alpaca and having, she said, a good time. She had already purchased some alpaca wool, with which she’ll likely make a hat, she said. She sells her wares at craft fairs, and was taught to crotchet in elementary school in Germany, she said.
Wren Olivier, a member of the organizing committee and a resident of Albemarle County, couldn’t offer a concrete number of attendees, but said the turnout for this year’s festival was very good.
“It’s a great, great place to be when the weather is nice,” Mann said.
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