Hold your herding event at Terra Norte!

OUR FACULTY -

Session Schedule & Description|Faculty Bios| Registration | Hotel & Nearby Attractions

Rancho Terra Norté is blessed with the number of herding professionals who give their time and expertise to our program. The faculty set to present at this year’s Summer Symposium are truly some of the most gifted instructors & judges in the county who have agreed to share their knowledge with our students.

2025 Visiting Foreign Judges/Instructors Kerstin and Andreas Smietana:
		Hello, we are Kerstin and Andreas Smietana. We are employed as professional shepherd masters at the Agricultural College in Triesdorf (Bavaria/Middle Franconia). We manage a flock of sheep that is cared for in the traditional style of herding, we herd with German Shepherd Dogs. In Triesdorf, the second oldest Bavarian breeding herd has 265 Merino ewes plus offspring in a site-based herding system. The sheep have been cared for and looked after by the Smietana family for many years. In addition to her book breeding, the care of the orchards and grazing areas is of great importance for biodiversity in Triesdorf. In addition, breeding animals are sold and lambs for slaughter are marketed. Animal keepers, animal scientists from the vocational school, university students and technicians use the sheep for lessons and practical exercises.  I, Kerstin Smietana, was the first female participant in a BLH in 1998/1999, and I was also the first female HGH judge active in the SV from 2017-2022. I am also still an active herding judge in the state sheep breeding association. Andreas has been active in performance trials since 1989, where he won the BLH in 2015 and achieved second place at the BLH four times in the following years. While we are no longer members of the SV (since 2023), we are still active at the events of the sheep breeding associations.

Carol Ann Hartnagle:
		Carol Ann Hartnagle is the third of four Hartnagle generations to enjoy a lifetime association with working stock dogs. From the time she was a child, she saw and used working Australian Shepherds in the environment for which they were originally intended. Her family’s bloodline, Hartnagle’s Las Rocosa Aussies was founded in 1955 and is the oldest kennel in the breed. She is the breeder, trainer, and handler of a number of champion working titled Australian Shepherds and has titled in all areas of competition. The family’s kennel earned the distinction of being the first-ever Hall of Fame Kennel; first-ever Hall of Fame Excellent Kennel, and the first-ever Stockdog Kennel of Excellence. An in-demand and multi‐disciplined judge in AKC, ASCA, and CKC, Carol Ann judged in thirty-seven states and nine countries. She has been honored to judge National Specialty Herding Trials for numerous Herding Breed Parent Clubs, and countless trials for specialty clubs. She has presented seminars across North America, U.K., and Europe. As one of the first approved AKC Herding Program Judges, Carol Ann has assisted and coached a number of trial and ranch participants to successfully achieve their goals. She is the co‐author of the popular book entitled the Total Australian Shepherd – Beyond the Beginning with her father, Ernest Hartnagle. In 2024, Carol Ann, along with her siblings, was honored with the distinction of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Shepherd Club of America for their past and ongoing contributions to the breed
Linda Rorem:
		Linda Rorem actively competes in various venues with her Shelties and German Shepherd. She is an accomplished herding dog historian, one of the founder of the American Herding Breeds Association, an all-breeds herding trials Judge, and the custodian of the website, Herding on the Web (www.herdingontheweb.com). Linda will one of our Tending Fundamentals instructors. Teaching elements of the traditional style herding to our started tending attendees.
Roy Sage:
		Roy Sage comes to us from Nyssa, OR and brings a lifetime of experience working with dogs, livestock, and dogs with livestock. He and his wife Annette's Osage Australian Shepherd Kennel has recieved the special recognition of being a Hall of Fame (HOF) Kennel producing a number of Working Trial Champions (WTCH). Roy has conducted clinics and judged trials across the nation and the globe with all breeds of herding/working dogs. Roy shares his daily work load with an Aussie, a Belgian Sheepdog and a Border Collie. Roy really enjoys working with novice dogs and handlers and we are lucky to have him lined up to work with our Intro to the Bubble handler/dog teams.
Val Manning
		Val's interest in herding started when working as a Pet Food Specialist for Farmland Industries in the late 80's and early 90's. During this time, Farmland was the official Pet Food of The Meeker Classic, The National Western Stock Show and other trials in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. At that time - very few people were trialing with upright dogs, and fewer with German Shepherds. In 1995, Val finished her first conformation champion - CH Hickory Hill's Excalibur "Magic" and decided that the next goal would be to compete in herding. She and Magic started working with Jerry Rowe that June, and started trialing in October. Since that time, Terra Norte' GSD's have been both conformation champions and herding dogs. In 2004 with the help of Hildy Morgan, Jerry Rowe and others - Val started Rancho Terra Norte' and the Northern Colorado Herding Cooperative was established. Working with beginning students and their dogs is highly rewarding. While most trainers can take a dog and trial successfully, it takes a Coach to teach the owner how to herd and build on the relationship between dog & handler. Diversity is what builds a better mousetrap - Val has been successful in helping GSD's, Aussies, BCs, Rotties, Collies, Belgians, Briards, and Cattledogs and their owners herd proficiently and achieve success in the herding arena or field. She is both an AKC and AHBA herding judge.
Deborah Stull
		Deb hails from Bovina TX (in the Panhandle) and is an AKC and AHBA licenced herding judge. Deb will be bringing her all-breed experience to help our intermediate and advanced Arena and Field students sharpen their handling skills.
Mary Alice Wisecarver
		Mary Wisecarver has been training and trialing herding dogs for over 15 years. She competes in a multitude of venues including AKC, AHBA, ASCA and USBCHA with various breeds. She is also a judge in both AKC and AHBA. Mary Wisecarver started her herding career relatively young at the age of 7 years old. Through the years she proved age doesn’t matter as she competed both as a junior handler as well as regular classes with great success. In ASCA Mary truly shined and received a multitude of awards including the number one junior for 10 years in a row and competing in the ASCA Nationals Finals multiple times and finishing in the top 5. In AKC Mary has obtained two Herding Champions on her Border Collies and the Herding Excellent title with her Australian Shepherd with countless high in trial and high combined awards. Natural progression led Mary to start training and trailing others dogs professionally. This vastly increased the breeds she trained which continued to teach her about the different temperaments of dogs and training techniques. Mary believes in continued education and still attends clinics and learns from other competitors.

Britney Mazzer
		Britney Mazzer and her Rottwielers do everything - including carting. While Rotts are her breed - Britney enjoys working with all breeds, big and small. This year, Britney is going to be one of the fundamental level instructors. She is also going to share her love for carting at this year's Carting Workshop scheduled for Monday evening July 7th.
Lauren Sandrin
		Lauren Sandrin started herding at RTN in the winter of 2020 with her GSD Freya, since that time she and Freya have earned advanced titles on the A, C and D course. She finished Freya's Herding Championship in 2023. This Spring - Lauren has started trialing with Bull, a Freya son. Lauren also competes in obedience, rally and scentwork. We are excited to have Lauren join this year's faculty as an Intro to Tending instructor.
Jill Grant
		Jill Grant is a multi-venue competitor and instructor. Jill and her Rotties do it all - Conformation, Obedience, Rally, Herding, Carting and Tracking. Jill and her husband reside in Longmont where she works from home as a technical writer/editor. We feel very fortunate that Jill is our tracking resource. Her Tracking lecture and workshop are very popular sessions.
Dave Stanford
		Dave and his wife Jenny reside in Evans, CO with their two GSDs Peyton and Athena. As a recently retired middle school science teacher, Dave brings together is gift for teaching and his passion for dog sports. He and Peyton are active competitors in herding, scentwork, and barn hunt. RTN is thrilled he will be working with symposium students by leading the Intro to Scentwork and Intro to Barnhunt workshops.
Hana Fullmer
		Hana Fullmer trains all breeds and all levels at SummerNY Ranch, owned by Cathy Sumeracki, in Ignacio, Colorado.  Hana brings real life experience to herding training as she owns and operates Tierra Vida Farm and Tierra Vida Ranch. Managing, rotating, and grazing animals is part of the soil health and fertility program for both of her businesses. Her dog Zoey is her most valuable employee and her puppy Ace has begun his training.   Hana believes strongly in utilizing as much of a dog's innate ability as possible. Her methods are focused on ensuring that dogs are accountable for their own behavior (in life and work) so that we, as handlers, have to manage them as little as possible. As a trainer, Hana is patient and soft spoken. Her gift is the ability to explain herding so her students can understand it. Herding can be difficult to grasp and Hana makes it easy.  Outside of farming and training, you will find her at herding trials, hiking mountains, and camping with her dogs and husband.