Post by Clue Anderson on another Forum:
THE TABULATIONS ARE IN AND THE RESULTS ARE FINAL HAHA. Well we finally did get to do the dog trials at Smithville and had a good turnout in spite of having been rescheduled more than once. Saturday (all age dogs) there were 21 entries and as always there are 4 winners, 1st place went to Chris Herrige from Arkansas, 2nd to Dale Toons of Smithville, 3rd to Clay Hurst from Sulphur OK, and Outstanding dog went to Clay also on his dog Durago. Chris has BMC's he got his start in from Ben, Dale uses mostly Leopard dogs"catahoulas" and Clay although he has both BMC's and a good strain of Leopard dogs was working a BMC this year.
Bo Nutting was the judge and as always did a good job.
Sunday there were 17 entries to the Derby dogs (24mths and younger) when it was all done 1st went to Johnny Stone of Arkansas, 2nd went to Will Grantham of OK. 3rd went to Benny Jordan of Arkansas and Outstanding dog was owned by LaDell Toons of Smithville. Johnny Stone used some BMC Lep crossed dogs Will has BMC's, Benny has Bmc's and LaDell had a Lep dog. Bo had to go home and that put us in a bind for a judge but a fellow named Kenny Heman stepped up and did the honors.
The fellow that won the Sr horn blowing contest was Mike White (I think that was his name) and the Jr horn blowing went to Chelsea Anderson.
There was an added event this year on Saturday that was fun as well, someone donated a wild sow and everyone that wished to enter put up a fee (there were 13 including myself) we all lined up horseback with a rope and the hog was released out of a trailer about 50 yds. or so out then given some headstart and on the signal everyone went flogging and tried to rope the sow. The sow won haha she went a couple hundred yds and made it under a fence and across the highway, the crowd enjoyed it and everyone had fun.
There was quite a bit of tale telling and visiting took place, maybe a few cold beers and moonshine sipped on and lots of pretty good dogs cast. All in all a sucessful get together.
Post by skoalbandett on another forum:
Bob ( Big O ) and I sure enjoyed making that trip.. We had a great time and got to visit with some fine folks.. Those kind of events are a dieing thing in the working stock dog world. But not at this one or with these people, this was the real deal with the real folks showing the dogs that are a big part of their lively hood and have been in some cases for 60 years or better.
I sure got a kick out of gettin to visit with Ben Jordan, James Camp and a couple other old fellers about the days of open range, working and driving cattle, horses and Hogs. Ben loved driving those hogs and told several real good stories about it. Sounds like they did it just like it was done by many down in the Big Thicket country.. It's a shame that was closed 2 years ago by the paper mill folks in Oklahoma. All of that is exacty why these guys have the dogs they have today, you had to have the right kind of dog power to gather, bay and drive cattle and hogs in this open range wilderness mountain area. I'd say at least 1/2 the fellers there also hunted hogs with their dogs, enjoyed visiting with them.. Wen got a couple invites to come up there and run some bear with a couple of those guys.. Seems they are getting lots of them around there. We plan on doing that... LOL
As usual, our picture taken lacks a little.. For one we forgot and left the disk for the Video camera and extra batteries for my camera at home.This course was laid out over probably 1000 to 1200 yards and I really didnt have enough zoom power but did the best I could.
For those that dont know how it works... Basically In this case they turned 5 cows out,. drove them a little ways into the pasture. The contestent would then send his dogs ( Most were 2 dogs) and sucessfully get all 5 stopped, gathered and bayed up, then work and hold them properly for a one minute count. After that each contestent , using his dogs, had to drive the cattle through 3 different sets of gates a couple hundred yards apart and back into the lot. All of that had to be done in a 15 minute time frame. Now all of this takes place in a wide open pasture, there aint no fences. Dogs were given points or had them deducted for different things based on how correctly they did the job.
The luck of the draw on the lots of cattle is really what determined the winners. There were 7 or 8 teams of dogs there were really good dogs, some drew cattle that worked well, others drew some tougher cattle to handle. I think the first top 8 spots were only seperated by 3 points.. It was nip and tuck all the way. Clue didnt draw a good set of cattle, One kept wantin to leave there and another didnt want to drive, but his dog Cowboy put on a show stopping her and puttin her back in the bunch then leadin like a BMC dog should. Cowboy and Jordan did put some trainin on that cow, the next feller that drew that lot, that cow wanted no part of the dogs, stayed in the middle, drove and acted like a school girl.. lol That Cowboy dog is real impressive to watch work.. I honestly think he and one other dog,it was real close as to which was the best dog shown that day. Clue didn't mention it but Lisa tied for 3rd. SHE BEAT HIM.., Na we didnt give him any grief about it.. lol She has a heck of a good run and just may have been placed higher if Queen worked her normal style. Queen was coming in heat big time and stopped to pee to often. Lisa came back fussin at her.. lol ( Got her home Clue, we'll try her today )
I honestly wish every man who loves or cares about a good working head dogs could have been there to see this.. It was how dogs are supposed to do it and done by people who walk the walk. More BMC stock dog history there that I think you will find anywhere when it comes to the right kind of stock dogs. Cowboys and Ranchers from 4 states there to show their dogs, young and old.... I was real impressed with some of the spotted dogs there, I havent seen some like those in years.. At this one, the tail gate dropped and the BS stopped.. I loved it.
Picture First morning of folks arriving:
Mr. Ben Jordan:
This is Mr. James Camp, the event was held at his place.. His old Moe dog sure has
his place in BMC dog history of good working dogs.
This is Bob ( Big O ) , Clue, Lisa & Chelsa Anderson, Dr Charles Long and some of the other folks there
Clue with Cowboy and Jordan
oy and Jordan
Lisa and Chelsa with Queen and Roxie
Young feller Drivin Cattle during the competiton
Some other good cur dog working right
Clue Driving cattle with Cowboy and Jordan
Queen and Roxie working for Lisa
Lisa driving cattle with Queen and Roxie:
Some nice crossbred spotted dogs working:
The boy that won it Saturday with a awful nice BMC dog, Clay Hurst.
This is the Hog Roping Clue was talking about..They all lineing up gettin ready. Some fellers drove 50 yards or so into the pasture and turned the pig loose. What a rodeo that was.. lol... Score.. Cowboys 0 Pig 13... Good lesson in just how fast a pig can run and how smart they are.. lol
A few of the dogs I was able to take pictures of before the batteries gave out:
These are Clue's dogs.
This is Clue's Cowboy dog. .. what a dog, I love this dog. he not only looks the part, bred for it, He is one what they supposed to be.
Picture of some dogs in Bo Nuttings trailor
Post by Clue Anderson on another forum:
There is more knowledge and experience of handling stock with head dogs right there on that one weekend each year than i have ever had privilege to anywhere i have ever been and i'm grateful to call many of them my friend, everybody is welcome and treated kindly, but not everybody really "gets in" it is just an old cultural thing that not everybody understands.
Yea Lisa did beat me by a point or two on Saturday but hey i broke them cows for her and Clay haha. Sunday Lisa and I both drew a pretty mild set of cattle so we just worked one young dog each as they don't listen quite as well and with just 5 head in the flat bare open (something ours aren't used too) i knew we'd have too much dog power with 2. I worked Droop and other than him wanting to go on because he smelled cow sign in front of him he did a good job, but him putting his nose down and starting off then me making him come back in to what we had just won't score well. Lisa used Sue and she worked like a house on fire, they asked me why I didn't let her work something with some speed haha, she was everywhere all at once while bayed and just didn't lead off well when Lisa went to driving, Sue is not normally rough but got to pecking on them a little and won't listen to Lisa as well as me then Lisa said she was afraid to try and make her back up much because she might have left her trailing haha (she had watched Droop). I guess she was overly excited about being able to get around so well and was getting even for all those briars and brush she is used too. All told there is a fair amount of dog power in those young dogs but the handle is just not complete yet haha handler issues I guess.
There was one casulty Sunday, One of Chris' young dogs got a leg broke, he drew a set of blacks with some ear that had handled fair on Saturday but Sunday one of them really worked at leaving and messed up his run, i was horseback out by the starting line watching and helping send them out for a good start and they went over the hill out of sight then when they came back i saw the dog had a broken hind leg. Ben drew the same set of cattle and didn't do well with them either.
The little brindle strip faced dog of LaDells that won outstanding dog Sunday really did put on a clinic, never missed a beat nor put one foot out of place, he was a real pleasure to watch.
We talked about it on the way home and figure Chelsea is gonna work dogs there next year. Joetta Toons and Lisa are the only women to have ever won the KACSPE trials, so I want to give my little girl a roll at it hahaha, Cowboy and Queen are really hers
