The Rationalisation of Rural Sport: British Sheepdog Trials, 1873–1946

Abstract

The article analyses the evolution in both the forms and changing social content of British Sheepdog trials, from the first recorded event at Bala, Wales in 1873 to the advent of their revival following the Second World War (during which they had been suspended). Contrary to popular myth, early trials were gentry sponsored and therefore heavily freighted with elite values concerning the nature of the shepherds' craft. Early trials accented speed, agility and obedience in the dog, as well as sheer entertainment value, arising often from debacles that might ensue in any given run. The trials, too, remained adjuncts to elite, Kennel-club style dog-shows, with their focus on conformation and the physical beauty of the animal. As the social prominence of the aristocracy and gentry receded after 1880, so too did their role in defining the nature of the sheepdog trial. With the founding of the International Sheepdog Society in 1906 by shepherds and farmers, the rules for such trials became transformed, reflecting more the actual work of the shepherd, and indirectly the larger shift within agriculture toward more specialised sheep production. These new rules gave the trial a rigorous aspect at once more modern than earlier prototypes, yet rooted in the craft traditions of rural artisans. At the same time, the shepherds and farmers, who made practical use of sheepdogs, assumed direction of the sport. The founding of the ISDS thus coincided with the new self-assertiveness of labour occurring nationally, reflected in the founding of the Labour party the very same year. Elements of the elite show-ring, however, would linger residually in ISDS trials, reflecting a degree of continuity, but these would gradually atrophy. ISDS trials would accent both the independent work of the dog and its ability to function as a working partner to the shepherd. The article thus deconstructs the complicated social evolution in the nature of a rural sport, which reflected in turn changes in the larger socio-economic environment, through a detailed analysis of the changing patterns of the trials themselves.