2015 Rolling Hills FTC
The Rolling Hills Field Trial Club held its fall NBHA trial on Saturday September 19th on the Dude Hoehns farm south of Knoxville, Iowa. It�s been a hot, very wet summer throughout much of the Midwest and southern Iowa is certainly no exception. The grounds received 3 inches of rain in the twenty four hours before the trial making the river bottom portion of the course soggy, but not unbearably so. The morning running started with temperatures in the upper 50�s, peaking in the mid 70�s later in the day. Mild westerly breezes made for a beautiful late summer day to run dogs.
Judges for the broke dog stakes this year included Chuck Davis from Madrid, Iowa and Jim Giles from Des Moines, Iowa. Chuck has been involved in both NBHA and horseback trials for many years. An unfortunate illness the day of the trial kept him from judging last year�s event, but he more than made up for it by judging all stakes at this renewal. Jim Giles has many years of experience successfully running pointers in the Midwest. He�s had some recent health concerns, but is bouncing back nicely and looked strong this weekend. Jeff Wallace of Knoxville, Iowa, popular judge and well known shorthair breeder gave his close attention to the derby stake. Your scribe had the good fortune to judge the puppy stakes with Chuck. The judges all seemed to give their utmost attention to the dogs and the placements were well received.
The Open Shooting Dog Stake was a close decision between the scribe�s pointer female Cassie and Tim Penn�s stalwart setter male Stone. Both had a couple of nice finds. This day, the pointer with a bit stronger race, the setter looking a bit better on his birds. The nod went to the pointer, but barely. Tim Penn�s young setter female Jane rounded out the placements.
The Open Derby was won by Hank. Pointer male with a youthful, but forward race and three derby broke finds. Tim Penn�s setter male Ben took second with a nice race and bird contact.
The Open Puppy stake had several nice prospects. Taking first was Danaka, handled by Mike Harryman. While judging this stake I caught myself breaking the 10th commandment repeatedly. Despite my best efforts, I completely coveted this young dog�s performance. This is a good sized, black and white pointer female that is super smooth and stylish with great ground speed. Dr. John Ruetschi placed second and third with littermates. Both were placed on race and are easy going, fancy pointer females.
The Amateur Shooting Dog was won by Dr Ruetschi�s young black and white pointer Iceman. He had a far flung forward race and solid bird work to take the top spot. Second was Tim Penn�s setter Stone, again with a nice forward race and solid find.
The most entertaining stake was the Amateur Puppy. The last brace paired Brandi Harmon handling the young pointer Anchor and Kendal Brown running his young Brittany, Wynne. The pointer had the definite advantage on ground coverage, but with 5 minutes left in the brace both pups put up a large 20-30 bird covey of wild quail on the edge of the course and we got to see several point/bump/chase episodes on wild quail to end the trial.
This is the third year we�ve held this event and it continues to slowly grow. Kevin Western and Tim Penn are becoming regulars here. We were certainly tickled to have Danny Martin, Doc Ruetschi, Mike Harryman, and Justin Crooks make it up this fall. My old high school superintendent Gary Cowell and Charlie Beeler came up to watch the trial and it was a pleasure catching up with them. Kendal Brown helped out immensely as horse wrangler, and Jeff Wallace did a great job planting birds. My wife of 29 years, Kim, grilled burgers and served lunch. Pretty good for a lady who doesn�t particularly care for birddogs.
Thanks to my father Dude Hoehns for letting us run dogs on his farm. It�s hard to find a nice place to run this early in the fall and we feel fortunate to use these grounds. As always we would like to thank Gun Dog Supply for their gift certificate donations and also to Purina for their support of NBHA specifically and field trialing in general. Good luck and have fun running your dogs this fall!
Brent Hoehns
