Sheepdog trial competitors quickly learn there is a fine margin between winning and losing. Preparation, experience and thorough training are among the elements needed for success. One accomplished handler who understands this is Welshman Kevin Evans. But just when he thought his groundwork for the upcoming major trials of 2008 was going to plan, it looked as if his dream could be shattered. Lisa Soar talks to this year’s International champion at the family farm near Brecon.

Kevin Evans started handling dogs from the age of four and it would seem he was always destined for stardom in the sheepdog world. Behind the laid-back and unassuming exterior lies a steely determination to be the best.

Now 27, the building contractor has reached the pinnacle of sheepdog trialling by winning the 2008 International, held at Kimmel Park, Abergele, with his dog Mirk.

The taste of success isn’t a new sensation for Kevin. He has been a member of the Welsh team on seven occasions, has won the Welsh brace championship twice and has been reserve supreme brace champion. For the last two years he has also won the South Wales Association nursery final. The list of achievements goes on and he has been knocking on the door of International glory, but as he says ‘there is no second’.

Talking to him, you get a sense that Kevin always felt this was going to be his year.

Fitting in training with work is difficult, particularly during the winter months. In the spring he spent the dark evenings out on the motorbike exercising his dogs.

The preparation was paying off at the early trials as the two stars of his pack, litter brothers Mirk and Spot, were both on form.

‘I’d got them super fit,’ said Kevin. ‘They were really tuned up at the start of the season. We were getting ready for the major trials ahead.’

But even the best-laid plans can go awry and in the middle of May disaster struck.

Mirk pulled ligaments in his shoulder and would have to be confined to a cage for at least ten weeks. There were visits to vets, x-rays taken and complete rest was prescribed.

As if this wasn’t enough of a setback, Spot succumbed to a mystery illness over the summer.

At first Kevin thought he was ‘just having an off-day’ but he didn’t get better. So it was back to the vets, where a number of tests were taken, and Kevin also took him to a local homeopath.

‘We still don’t know what it was,’ said Kevin.

‘I’m not sure if it was the antibiotics or the homeopath that got him better, but he seems to be back to full health now.’

It was the beginning of August before Mirk was allowed out of the cage and Kevin says he was almost afraid to work him for fear of making it worse.

Fortunately the dog has a lot of natural stamina and Kevin had ‘kept him lean’ in the box.

Kevin added: ‘We don’t pay enough attention to our dogs and what they are telling us. We just expect a lot from them. We mutter they’re having an off day if they don’t do something right. And if it carries on it’s down the road they go, but we should listen to them more.’

Fortunately, Mirk regained his health and fitness. Although Kevin had far less preparation time than he would have liked before the International, the groundwork had been done the year before.

Looking back on his winning run, he said: ‘You always aim to go to the International and do your best. I find the nerve-wracking bit is the qualifying round.

‘I’m more relaxed in the final because, to some extent, the pressure is off. The run comes naturally.

‘But then if you’re having a good run, you know you can’t mess anything up because you could so easily lose it.’

Good preparation is all part of Kevin’s philosophy, in training and on trial day.

He advised: ‘You should always suss out the course. 

‘At this year’s International you had to walk the course to work out the correct line of the fetch.

‘At the top of the second outrun the handlers had to judge where the dogs were to stop them because they were out of sight. If you got that wrong then your lift went and the start of the fetch. It’s easy to lose points.’

He added: ‘It’s always nice to have a plan before you start, sometimes it works but mostly it doesn’t.’

Back at home on the family’s farm in Libanus, Kevin has had time to reflect on his success.

‘Winning the International still hasn’t sunk in,’ he said. ‘But it was just another trial at the end of the day, life is still the same.’

Having said that, both Kevin and Mirk have received plenty of attention since. During the World Trial in Llandeilo, Kevin had an entourage of TV cameras, photographers and people from around the world keen to congratulate him, maybe hoping that some of his success would rub off.

Mirk has also been in demand. ‘He now has lots of girlfriends coming to visit,’ laughed Kevin.

Working full-time and staying on top of your game can be tough, but years of experience and a passion for the sport keeps Kevin and his dogs a nose in front of the competition.

As a four-year-old he was given a puppy, Tweed, by his granddad and it was his dad’s influence that encouraged him to start competing.

His dad, David, began sheepdog trialling at the age of 13. He is also a successful trainer and handler who has been in the Welsh team on five occasions. Having a family put a temporary stop to his hobby, but when Kevin got keen the pair ventured out onto the trials field and have been a formidable duo on the South Wales circuit ever since.

Kevin says Tweed was just a farm dog, although he did compete with him at local trials from the age of seven.

At the age of ten things started getting serious. He was given a young bitch called Maid, by Mostyn Isaac who asked him to run her in the nurseries.

He had her a fortnight before the first nursery. At the first trial they didn’t come anywhere, in the second nursery they were placed fourth and they returned home from the third competition as very happy winners.

‘She’d only been here a month and we’d won a nursery,’ said Kevin.

After that he was hooked. He kept Maid and went on to appear on television with her in One Man and His Dog. They competed at many trials and also enjoyed success in young handler competitions.

Kevin’s first national experience was in 1994 and in 1999 he got into the team in the brace competition. His first team place in the singles was in 2000 with Jess, a daughter of Maid, and they finished 10th.

Kevin now lives in the town of Brecon, a short distance from the farm. David farms the 60-acre holding and runs 300 ewes. They also have mountain grazing. Kevin manages to fit in as much training as possible and would love to farm full-time, if there was enough money in it.

‘Dad’s income is mostly from the dogs, not the farm. I’d have to train the dogs too to make any money,’ he said.

It was his dad who started working both Spot and Mirk. They were both for sale, but no-one had wanted them, ‘or come up with the money’, before Kevin spotted them in training.

Kevin says he exchanged two of his bitches for the brothers. Without getting to the bottom of the deal, Kevin is adamant dad didn’t come out if it so badly. And judging by the amount of grinning going on around the kitchen table, everyone concerned seems happy with the outcome.

Kevin added: ‘We go through a lot of dogs to find one we want and one that suits us.

‘I like to start working something once it is going round sheep and stopping.’

Due to his limited time on the farm, he doesn’t get as much opportunity for everyday work with his dogs as he’d like. Therefore he prefers to have dogs that are enthusiastic and like being trained. He doesn’t enjoy working sulky dogs, because his dogs have to take the pressure of being ‘drilled’.

‘They’ve got to be mad for work,’ he said.

‘Spot and Mirk never get upset or shy away from work. They have to be like that because they get drilled and drilled in training. They are both really keen no matter what.’

At trials they need a watchful eye because they are always glued to the action.

‘I have to keep an eye on them otherwise they’d be up the field helping.’

Asked which is the better dog, Kevin replies without hesitation: ‘I think Spot is a better dog than Mirk.

‘He is better, but Mirk seems to be luckier. But maybe they make their own luck.’

The pair have inherited much of their natural instinct from their sire, Jaff.

At the International in Ross-on-Wye, Jaff sat in the grandstand with Kevin, watching every move on the field.

‘He was watching with me and had worked it all out before we went to the post. He had a brilliant turn-back that day,’ he said.

‘Spot and Mirk seem to have that ability. I want things like that in my dogs, natural instinct that you can’t teach, but they probably wouldn’t suit everybody.’

He has no preference over keeping dogs or bitches, so long as they work and suit him.

‘It’s nice to have an attractive dog, but if it’s not and it works, that’s fine, it wouldn’t worry me at all,’ he said

‘Looks are a bonus, like most things in life!’

Moving on to the handler, modesty prevents him from talking about his strong points, although he does emphasise how he always aims for the best lines and tight turns around the field.

He added: ‘People lose trials being slack on their lines.

‘Judging a trial helps you realise this. All of a sudden you can see where things can go wrong and where points can come off. It sharpens you up.’

Kevin lists his at-hand work as one of his weaker trialling points, and a tendency to be impatient in training.

‘I’m not very good at shedding, or under-hand work in general. I think I’m more tense, especially with Mirk and Spot. 

‘They are so intense and on edge and then the sheep get bunched up and there’s more pressure on all of us.

‘I can also be a bit impatient in training, I expect a bit too much perhaps.

‘I don’t enjoy starting dogs so much - I leave that to dad and then if I see something I like, I’ll take it on and start working on it.

‘Young dogs need to know who’s boss but they also need to try it on. That’s good, I don’t want them too easy. Pups who go out around sheep from the start don’t come to anything for us. They’re almost too perfect. They may be suited to other people but it’s not what I want.’

Having youth on his side, Kevin is hopeful of a bright future for the sport and feels that as it expands worldwide, standards are improving. One of the aspects he enjoys is meeting people whose paths you wouldn’t usually cross, and seeing beautiful parts of the country you’d never normally venture to.

‘Trialling is going from strength to strength. The world in general is getting smaller and I’m sure more handlers from abroad will come over here to compete during the summer season,’ he said.

Already competing in one of the most strongly contested areas in the UK, the potential of more competition is a welcome prospect for the ambitious handler.

‘It’s good to have new people coming into the sport - the more the merrier,’ he said.

‘The stiff competition we have in South Wales is good because it drives the standards up.’

Experience pays dividends on the trials field, particularly at higher level competitions. Basic shepherding skills are a must to make any sort of progress in the sport.

‘It’s essential to have shepherding skills. You need to understand sheep and you need to get hands-on experience,’ said Kevin.

‘There are plenty of good people who can train and handle dogs, but it’s the ones who can read sheep who will go on to win. And you can’t teach that.’

So now that he has achieved his ambition and won the International, what’s next?

‘Try to win it again, I suppose,’ he smiled.

And it’s that laid-back attitude to life which should keep his feet firmly on the ground and allow him to focus on being the best in his field. 

Kevin knows what works for him, the type of dog he needs and how to reach the highest level. He doesn’t preach a one-way-works-for-all method for success. He lets people make their own choices and judgements. While he’s happy to offer advice, he leaves it to the individual to decide what they do with that advice.

‘The more dogs you have, the more you learn. People can teach and teach you, but you have to get out there and do it.’’

And on that note, I’m heading to the field to find some sheep for a quick training session. 

For more pictures of Kevin Evans in action visit the World Trial galleries.