{"id":1173983,"date":"2026-08-28T10:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1173983\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T10:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:12:27","slug":"young-eden-sheepdog-handler-to-represent-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1173983\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Eden sheepdog handler to represent England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1001\" height=\"685\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/handler.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-616128\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A young sheepdog handling enthusiast from Eden has been selected to represent England at an international contest at Daylesford Farm, in the Cotswolds, from September 11 to 13th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The International Supreme Sheepdog Trial 2026 will see 20-year-old Zak Edwards, from Penruddock, and his dog Queen, a four-year-old bitch, compete against their counterparts from Wales, Scotland and Ireland in the young handler section, for those aged 21 and under.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zak has been competing at trials held by the North Westmorland Sheepdog Society for just two years but has already impressed with his high level of competence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said he was shocked but very pleased to be selected for the international, which he considers his best achievement so far in the trials world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Keen to do as well as possible at the prestigious event, he has been running Queen every night, either at Penruddock or on the farm at Ousby where he works.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added that it is thanks to the expertise of veterinary professionals that Queen is able to compete, since she broke a leg last November but this has been fused so she can get around without difficulty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trial also incorporates individual and brace competitions for handlers from the four home nations, with the top honour being the International Supreme Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other rural skills will also be celebrated, including dry stone walling, cider making, bee keeping and wool weaving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young sheepdog handling enthusiast from Eden has been selected to represent England at an international contest at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1173984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":["post-1173983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117172605874875885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1173983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1173984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1173983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1173983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1173983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}