Central Prairie Field Trial Club December 11 results
Amateur Shooting Dog winners pictured from left to right; Craig Hiatt with winner Craig’s Runnin Roxie, Danny Draffin with 2nd place Double D’s Red Lancelot, and Tim Penn with 3rd place Penrosa Hidncash
Central Prairies Field Trial Clubs NBHA fall.
By Dan Crunk
For the last several years, our good friend Butch Spelbring has run fall and spring trials for this organization. In the past several years, the field trial community has lost several clubs that are just not hosting trials anymore. We have lost the Dolan Lake group with JD and Robin Wirth. Plus the Macoupin County crew. Rick Stanford and your scribe had been discussing starting another field trial club and we’re preparing to move forward with that plan. Recently, Butch has had some significant health issues and decided he was not going to run any trials in the future. It became apparent that Rick and I could just take over the Central Prairie Club with a lot less trouble. So the history lesson is complete with the December 11th, 2021 trial was the first run by Rick and I. Butch was still able to come for a couple of hours and lend his assistance and advice. There are very few individuals in the field trial community that have given so much of themselves to field trialing.
Thank you Butch!
Well, the weather forecast was for temperatures in the mid 40s and extreme winds. The forecast was very accurate. 30 to 40 mile per hour wind gusts faced us all day long. Fortunately, the Ellis Farm has several wooded tree lines, plus ditches that served as wind blocks. Again, we are so thankful to the Ellis family for allowing us to host field trials on their farms. Rick Stanford, Dan Hampton, Brad Hargis and your scribes served as judges for the day. Jae Crunk prepared the lunches plus homemade cookies. Thanks also to Purina and Gundog Supply for their continued sponsorship of the NBA trials.
Due to the late day for holding this fall trial, our entries were down. Hard to explain why at the Mid South Bird Hunter’s trial a couple of weeks before, the largest stake was the Amateur Derbies. This week we had no entries for a Derby stake. I will say the quality of our entries was very high. Craig Hiatt has not been able to run his Roxie Dog for a while now and he is back with Roxie, who has regained her health. Good to have Craig and Roxie present.
Winners
Amateur Shooting Dog Stake; This shooting Dog stake was loaded with quality entries. The judges had their hands full placing the top three dogs of this day. First place went to Roxie, PF, handled by her owner Craig Hiatt. Roxie on her day, had two finds and a back coupled with an excellent ground race. She went to all the places that should hold birds. After several surgeries in the past few months, it was good to see her back in action. Second place was awarded to Red, PM, owned and handled by his owner Danny Draffin. Red also had two finds and a huge race. The difference in the first two placements probably was the last five to six minutes in Reds race, as he had an absence. Third place went to Cash, SM, for Tim Penn. Cash also had two finds and a nice forward race. All three of these dogs were so attractive on the ground and on point.
The Amateur Gundog Stake
Don Heisner brought his Penny, SF, to the trial and took home a first place plaque. Penny is a litter mate to Don’s 2 great male setters. Penny had three finds in her 30 minutes and handled well for Don. Second place went to Dan Hampton with JoJo, PF. JoJo had three finds and was extremely classy, running and pointing. Good to have Dan Hampton running a dog in this trial and also helping judge. Third place was Patch, PM, for Frank Christie. Patch had two finds and a big searching race. Frank has done well this fall with Patch.
Amateur Puppy Stake
First place in the puppy stake went to Ty for Charlie Bowlin, Ty had several finds and most were close to broke finds. Ty is very attractive on the ground and pointing. This is a very good young prospect. Second, went to Steve Feuss with Rose, SF. Rose had a huge race and several bird contacts. Third place went to D for Brad Hargis. D started out a little slow but after 7 to 8 minutes shifted into another gear and really covered the ground.
Thanks to all of our handlers for making entries to this trial. Purina and Gundog Supply continued to support our trial and we sure appreciate them. See you in the spring.
