On a cool weekend in June, 2026, Ellie had her debut in the sport of Barn Hunt. And what an incredible debut it was! She was entered in four trials (two on Friday and two on Saturday) and came away with three beautiful, successful runs in the Novice A class to finish her RATN (Barn Hunt Novice) title in short order. For her fourth run she was moved up to the more difficult Open level which she also aced, earning the first of three legs needed for her RATO (Barn Hunt Open) title.

Not only did she pass, but on her first two runs of the weekend she earned first place in her height division as well as the “High In Class” award for having the fastest qualifying run out of all three size divisions at the Novice level. She was also honored as the “Judge’s Choice” for judge Victoria Kelley, having captured her heart with her enthusiastic and capable runs. The second day she earned the third and final leg in the Novice class to complete her title. Even though she had an even faster time for this run, another dog went home with the first placement and HIC award. She then went on to earn a first place for her run in the Open class.

Besa also got to play in the Crazy 8’s class and had a blast, adding another 60 points for a total of 80 of the 250 needed for her CRZ8 title. It had been a while since we got to play this game but she loves it and was glad to get back out there!

Ellie far surpassed what I expected from her first weekend of Barn Hunt competition. Here is her titling run in the Novice A Class (BTW “Rattatooie” is my release command for this game). Adding the first of her credentials to her name, Ellie is now “Sittingbullies Somewhere In Time RATN”