Out West in the Wild

Dear Ones,

On Thursday, October 1st, Bud and I headed West... well a little south, to Oklahoma and Texas. We traveled through the Little Sahara, 4 wheeling paradise and wound up south of Arnett, on a ranch for the running of the Raymond Rucker Classic. We picked up Lucky and one of our pointers, Fancy, in Pratt.

Arnett is about 6 1/2-7 hours from home depending of course, on how many times one stops. We also took Lacy the wild, Pretty Boy the good and Ebony the dependable. Isabel, pointer, was entered in two stakes, the first one she refused the front and chased deer and the second one, redeemed herself with 55 minutes of an excellent effort topped with a bit of disappointment when she then chased the quail. Whoops! West OK is based in sand and grows all things stickery, and sand burrs seem to be a specialty... In fact each and every dog's foot that ran was wrapped in duct tape. Some liked their boots better than others. And oh, heaven help your hands, if you drop your lead rope on the ground. Leather gloves are a must.

It's wide open, rolling hills of sand and what they call "chinnery", little 3 foot high oak trees, thick as bushes. Honestly, every thing either sticks or bites. Oh, and did I mention that hogs run wild??? I didn't see any but they are plentiful from all reports.

We spent the evenings at the Bar G Lodge in Texas, about 48 miles from the field trial grounds. Lovely accommodations, excellent company and meals prepared by a very fine cook. While we didn't win anything and Ebony came home with a "black" eye from an unfriendly horse, all in all quite a fine time. Not particularly relaxing, but a nice alternative to "real" life...

ap/p