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Lone Star Hunting Retriever Club |
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President’s Message: Here is a recap of the 2010 Lone Star HRC Spring Hunt Test. Only in Texas will you see weather like this. On Friday 3-19-10 the trailer arrived at the cattle pins on the “Fish Camp” property. The weather was in the 70’s, workers and judges were wearing short sleeve shirts and sun screen. Once all of the judges arrived, marshals loaded up the wingers and everything they needed for the test they were going to be at for the weekend. Judges set up their appropriate tests. After setting up, we all met up at the “Fish Camp” restaurant for a patio dinner. Workers, Judges, and family sat, told stories, and ate dinner. Saturday morning we woke to rain and wind out of the North West. All I can say is - cold and wet is not fun. John Wallace and a few other club members got all the birds ready and out to the fields they went. The wind was so strong that the holding blinds were blowing away. Marshals had to tie them to trees and use rope to hold them in place. The Boy Scouts were our bird boys again this year. To say the least they were troopers. They did not have the proper rain gear, but stayed out and threw birds for us all day Saturday. It had to have rained 2 inches Saturday morning if not more. After noon the rain stopped but the wind was still blowing. The day was cold but all the club members stayed with it and worked through some terrible weather on Saturday. It was time for ribbons and the dinner. With the bad weather, there were about 25 handlers that stuck it out. We had very good fried catfish, hushpuppies, and fries. Kevin Buckley worked so hard on our raffle. We had an ok turn out for that but we could not blame anyone for not wanting to stick around. By Saturday night, the weather was cold and it had started to sleet, and the weather man was calling for snow on Sunday. No one thought the weather man would be correct, besides it was the second day of spring. Sunday morning I headed out of my hotel room around 2:00am to check on the dogs. I found 2 inches of snow on my truck. After checking on the dogs, it was back to bed for a few hours. I was supposed to meet John out at the property around 6:15 a.m.. I pulled up to the property to find the gate frozen shut and around 4 inches of snow on the ground. Several of the board members started to arrive and we all met in the barn to discuss our options. The outcome was "the show must go on". We had handlers that came up from South Texas and Oklahoma to run our test. We got a call from the Boy Scout leader stating that they could not let the boys out in this bad weather. The wind chill at the time was around 20 degrees; remember that Friday was in the 70’s. Judges arrived late due to road conditions, but everyone was ready to run dogs. Since we did not have any bird boys, our club members and handlers threw birds so the test could go on. Around noon the snow stopped, but it was still cold and windy. Everyone at the test worked together and there was no one complaining about running a winger or hanging birds. At the end of the day the trailer got loaded and headed out. With this test behind us it is one for the record books. This is a test that the club members worked hard and it showed. I would like to thank the following people, Becky Hansen for being our Hunt Test Secretary again this year; John Wallace for being the Game Stewart; Dale Flenthrope for handling all the guns; and Kevin Buckley for putting together a great Raffle. Here are the members that worked as Marshal’s:, Sarah Krause, Jimmy Fischer, James, Wade Duay, Bobby Geckler, Mark K., Dale Flenthrope, John Wallace, Kevin Buckley, and I. We would like to thank Mark Miller for being the Started Gunner both days. Mark was soaked to the bone on Saturday, and half frozen on Sunday, but he stuck it out with all of us. He even managed to get two started passes on his dog. Also a huge thank you goes out to Paul Dayberry for getting us on the property. Thanks goes out to every handler that made it out to the test. Hope you had a very memorable weekend. There are a few dog and handler teams that have received titles this hunt test season. See the website's Recognition Page for a complete list. If you have received any titles please email me so I can put them in the next Fetch. Upcoming events: Lone Star HRC Top Dog May 22, 2010; Location TBA! See you at the line. Kyle
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Regular Club Meeting -
Thursday May 20th @ 7:00 PM
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