Hunting Dakota With Roosevelt Year 3

Lucy with Kinsey Robinson and Darrel Roberts

A few years ago my friend, Roger Krueger from Bismarck told me about a plan he had to put on a pheasant hunt in western ND as a fundraiser for the Bismarck Cancer Center and he wondered if I would be interested in taking some dogs out and guiding some sponsors on this hunt.  I said sure I would be glad to help, thinking there was only a slim chance that it would ever come together.  As time went on Roger told me of his plans to include Iraq and Afghan war veterans from ND in the hunt as a thank you for their service and at the same time honoring Teddy Roosevelt and his impact on the consveration model that we have in America.  The whole thing became more and more interesting, but I don't know that I felt it was any closer to coming together.  Well I never should of doubted Roger but....I did.  In 2008 the hunt did happen, but without me because I had made plans to host a Field Trial Championship in Northern WI that weekend.  The next time I saw Roger he told me about the hunt and how much of a success it was, I then committed to the event for the next year. 

In 2009 I did participate in the hunt and was moved by how much the servicemen appreciated the fact that they were being included in this event.  I was also pleased to see ho this event could really accomplish something by raising money to support the Bismarck Cancer Center, a world class center in our own little part of the world. What imprinted on me the most that year was how much ND, and Teddy Roosevelt played in the development of the North American Conservation model, you could say that Jim Posewitz open my eyes to this and I will forever be grateful to him for that.  I also made some good friends at that hunt, both from the group I was guiding and some of the committee like Benjamin Sand.

So now this years hunt is in the books and I am so glad that I did it again.  This year it was really a tough decision because I was asked to judge the Michigan Woodcock Championship, and really wanted to do it but that would mean I could not participate in this years hunt, in the end I decided that the place I needed to be was in western ND for the hunt.  The added draw this year was my friend and fellow field trialer Don Dack was willing to bring his dogs and help out. 

The event started for us on Friday afternoon when we all got together for the all imortant safety meetiung, I really have aprreciated the high importance the committee has placed on safety, then the introduction to our teams.  Don and I were grouped together with three guys from Washington DC, one from Nashville and two servicemen from the North Dakota overall a really high caliber group of men.  This year my young son Billy came along also, which was a real treat for me. Friday evening the banquet and auction ensued which was fun and sucessful.

Now Saturday morning the real fun came, we arrived at the farm we were assigned to hunt at, I had hunted this farm last year so I knew that these guys were in for the hunt of a lifetime.  Now I know that these guys had know idea that they were hunting over two field trial champions but Butch and Knute really put on a show and before luchtime each of our hunters had taken a limit of pheasants, really an outstanding day afield.  Saturday afternoon Billy and I knocked around a very quiet Medora, as busy as it can be there in the summer it is very quiet this time of year.  The Saturday night banquet ensued, we were treated to a great meal and some good natured ribbing about the quality of gunning we saw throughout the day. 

Sunday was alot like Saturday as far the hunting went, we saw literally hundreds of pheasants and our group once again had taken there limits before lunch, really another outstanding day afield.  Butch, Lucy and Jet were the dogs that got the work today and all did very well.  Our hunters had a wide range of experience from very little wingshooting experience to one guy who had litterally hunted all over the world, but all had a good time and I believe they all said at one time or another that they were sure they would never experience another hunt like this in their lives.  Kinsey Robinson, whom had just returned from a hunting trip in Mosambique, told me he would never forget this hunt.

Fred Meyers from the Union Sportmans Alliance

Now I must say that this event so unique because it really is a three pronged event, the Bismarck Cancer Center, honoring the men that fight for our freedoms and then remembering and honoring Teddy Roosevelt.  Any of the three would be reason enough to get together but all three at once really makes it all worth it.  The teamwork that goes into making this all happen is also unique.  The HDWR Commitee, the land owners who allow us access to their great property, the dog handlers who take their time to help and then the sponsors who dig deep to help the cancer center.  Without any of these groups the hunt would not be possible.

I feel lucky to be involved and can't wait for next year!

Well thats the news from the farm for now.
Bill

Socrates

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Butch Cassidy

Well a number of years ago I was given some really good advice, "never brag on a dog until they are gone", that is good advice because we all know the more you say the better chance there will be that they will prove you wrong given a chance. God has not made the perfect dog yet, that I know of. So most of the time stuff like what I am about to write is saved for after a dog has passed, but against my better judgment I am going to write it while Butch is still alive.
So what you may ask would cause me to go against what I say is good advice, even though I know better, well lets just say that Butch has moved me to do so in the past few months, culminating in a great past few days.
It started about 6 years ago, when Bill Teat called me and asked me if I was interested in working this derby aged setter, he had been with another trainer in the fall and had placed in his only grouse derby stake that fall, 2nd in The Reuel Pietz Derby Classic in MN. I agreed not knowing much about him, but was pleasantly surprised when I started working him. Butch really impressed me with is athletic way of going as well as what I felt was a near perfect build for a setter. Izaak and I took Butch to the prairie that summer where I really learned a lot about Butch, I found out that he was a really good wild bird dog, always coming up with birds, I also learned that he was the most natural backing dog I had ever been around. Well time went on Butch and I traveled around training, trialing and hunting around the country. It was in the hunting part that I learned that Butch absolutely loved to retrieve, and I let him do so whenever I killed a bird for him. Thus came the hole, liberated birds were many times his undoing. In many trials he would be great on the ground, strong forward and fancy, then just when I least expected it a poor fling quail would end our bid. Well in training for those situations another of Butch's greatest qualities rose to the top, Butch is definitely the toughest setter I have ever worked with, not meaning that he was tough to train, but he has a great ability to take training, really a joy.
Well as time went on Butch placed in some walking trials and a few horseback weekend stakes in many venues including MN, WI, MI, TX. Then came one of my favorite performances of his career at the Montana OSD CH in August of 2005, 90 plus degrees and he ran a very strong hour, unfortunately he came up birdless, but it showed me he what it takes to compete as a major circuit shooting dog. A couple weeks later he proved it by being named runner up in the National Open Prairie Chicken Shooting Dog CH. We spent the rest of that fall running in Grouse Championships in MN,WI and MI, we didn't win but his versatility really was nice. Butch to this day is not a dog that gets lost, whether from horseback or foot, whether training, trialing or hunting.
As time went on and with changes in my life and circumstances that changed my my focuses our trialing became limited but our hunting increased. In 2007 when I decided to quit training for the public, I told Butch's owner that I would love to keep him and Bill Teat graciously allowed me to keep him and since then I have trialed him very sparingly but hunted him extensively, more on that later.
One thing that has not changed for me since I have curtailed my trialing activities, is my love for training dogs on the prairie in the summer. There is something about working dogs on wild birds whether it be from foot or horseback that really gets me excited. This summer whenever I went to work dogs, Butch was on the truck, with the thought that I might run him in the Dakota-Sask Open Shooting Dog Champiopnship in Sept., if he was ready. As the summer went on Butch was looking really good, so I entered him in the CH., he drew an afternoon brace with CH Elhew Hannabelle and the conditions were really tough, not real hot but warm and very windy, probably 30 mph, extremely tough conditions to point sharptails or huns in. It was a very memorable hour for me, Butch and Hannabelle really put on a show, Shawn and I had a blast watching these dogs run the prairie as well as could be done, sans one nonproductive point at about the 50 minute mark a great race was all we could muster, but it was fun anyways. I don't know if Butch will ever be turned loose in a trial again, but I think he still has another big win in him.
Now a little about Butch the hunting dog, many guys that have hunted over him have a hard time believing that he is "one of those big running field trial dogs" Butch has excelled hunting quail, pheasants, grouse, woodcock, sharptailed grouse and huns. In October of this year I took Butch on a hunting excursion in western ND, it was a charity event and our hunters were mostly Iran and Afghan war veterans, and I have heard from many of those guys that Butch showed them the hunt of there lives. I put that poor dog through things that no self respecting pointing dog should have to endure, hunting pheasants in large groups in heavy cover with cocker spaniels, I still feel kind of guilty about it but we needed him and I knew he could do it, he did not let me down, pointing and retrieving more birds than I could have ever counted in those two days and doing it at a pace and range that was perfect for the setting. Now what was the final trigger causing me to sit down and write this tonight? I spent the better part of the past 4 days hunting, pheasants, huns and sharptails. I hunted Butch some part of each day, running him in various covers and with different bracemeates, everything from brushy pastures to crp fields to cattail sloughs, with everyone from puppies to unbroke hunting dogs to our other old champion Berg Brother's Hytest. Once again Butch did not disappoint he made it so pleasurable that I could not help but reflect on the good times I have had with him over the years. Without getting to detailed he pointed several covey's of huns and sharptails along with dozens of pheasants this weekend, what a good dog he has been.

Here are two picture's I took of Butch on our last rooster today, the 1st picture is before the flush and the second is after the flush, shot and kill but before the retrieve.

Oh yeah and this one where we had just finished running a great looking CRP field/slough that really looked as though there should have been more birds in it than we found, we got back to the truck and he went over to this standing corn field as if to say, their in there boss.

That's all the news from the farm.

HUNTING IN NORTH DAKOTA, A LITTLE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

I was fortunate to take part in a very intriguing hunt last weekend. It was called Hunting Dakota with Roosevelt. The hunt is a charitable venture with a major goal of raising money for the Bismarck Cancer Center and that alone should be enough to make the cause worthwhile. In addition to that the organizers of this hunt wanted to also accomplish a couple of other goals, they wanted to acknowledge and thank the men and women of ND whom have taken part in the Global war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, by inviting some of those brave veterans along on this hunt, they also wanted to celebrate the role that ND played in developing one our greatest presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, and the role he played in developing the model of conservation we have today. I would contend that if it were not for ND, TR would never have become President of the United States and I believe he has written and said this many times but I would go on to add that if TR had not become president we would not have the conservation model in this country we have today, and without this conservation model we would have no game to hunt and no worthy land to hunt it on. So to sum it up without North Dakota there may not be the outdoor sports we so much enjoy today.

I write this now because as I was out in this country not far from where TR spent his time in ND, I could literally feel his spirit among us, he truly would have loved the camaraderie and fellowship we enjoyed while chasing pheasants in an area that if it were not for the conservation efforts of men like TR and later FDR, would surely have not held the type of game they do today. Although TR came to ND to hunt large game such as Buffalo and Elk it was his focus on saving the wild parts of this country and a focus on keeping sporting opportunities available for the common man that made these types of pheasant hunts possible.

So whether you hunt in the woods or the prairies, the potholes or the marshes whether you hunt deer or quail or turkeys or ducks rest assured that without the vision of a few of our predecessors you would not have have those opportunities today. When I say a few I truly mean that, TR first started his conservation efforts with a group of 3 men in NY after returning home from ND, of course it was his rise to the presidency that gave him the power to implement the programs he did which did things like develop A National Park System and National Forests along with National Wildlife Refuges. Kind of amazing what can become of a sickly young man who gets a passion for something like TR did. It does not take a million people to accomplish these things it takes a lot of individuals getting involved in something that is important to them.

I will close this by paraphrasing something I heard Jim Posewitz say this weekend. You do not own these resources your are merely borrowing them from your children and grandchildren, so make sure you return the resource to them in better shape than when you found them.

Thanks for listening.
Bill Holtan

Out of the mouthes of babes.

Maybe a lesson in faith, but definitely an eye opening conversation took place between our daughter and her son, our precious 4 year old grandson, Aden.

Some of you reading this may know, but for those who don't I will give a little background. Two years ago our 15 year old son, Izaak, was killed in a freak and tragic car accident. This loss has left a hole in our lives that will never be filled. Aden at the time was 2 years old.

Life has progressed and little Aden is growing up, like many young children he has a tendency to make up little songs as he goes about his day. Well lately he started singing bible related songs, songs about Jesus, God and Heaven. His mother noticed this and found it peculiar because Aden has not attended and bible schools or Sunday school yet. So finally her curiosity got the best of her and she asked him where he learned those songs. This is where the story got very interesting.

Aden told her that Izaak taught them to him, surprised she asked him when Izaak had taught him these songs. Aden calmly responded that Izaak talks to him everyday and that is when the teaching had happened. Our daughter then asked him what else Izaak had said to him, to which he responded, He tells me that God loves me.

Of course we were not surprised to hear that God loves our little Grandson, but the way that God chose to relay that info to Aden was a bit of a surprise.

If you needed a little reassurance or needed to add another stone to your wall of faith, maybe this is it.

That's all from the farm today.
Thanks for reading
Bill

Flood of 2009

My sister lives in Moorhead, MN. Thursday last week I headed to Moorhead to help try to save her house. It was touch and go for awhile and the two neighbors to the north of her did both lose the battle but so far it appears that we have saved it. The river is now going down but there is a winter storm headed there way and it will probably go up agan but I feel pretty good about where we are in the fight.

The Fargo-Moorhead area has really had an awesome turnout of volunteers from both within and from outside of the area. While watching this both in person and on TV I am moved to remember something that Muhamed Ali said "Service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on earth". Thank God for all of those who have to serve the FM area.

Izaak Holtan Walking Shooting Dog Classic

On Friday 4/25/08 the Classic was held. This was obviously a very emotional trial for me to attend and compete in. Long time family friends Rich Boumeester and Jim Tande braved the elements to judge this trial in the wind and rain. Our friend Don Dack build a beautiful trophy, carved out of a cherry tree that fell down in his yard...this trophy is a sight to behold obviously the work of love provided as a traveling trophy by Don.

The weather was terrible, 35 degrees rain and wind but we toughed it out and my youngest son Billy walked several braces. In the end Scott Berg won the classic with Lizzy and setter female with a strong race and one find on a quail, the runner up position was secured by Berg Brothers Hytest handles by Bill Holtan. Scott was generous to share the trophy with us for the year so it now resides at our house. In the companion derby I was fortunate to gain 3rd place with Maiden Pearl our young pointer who is a daughter of CH Sir Lancelot. In the companion puppy we were 1st with Winter Jewell a daughter of Billy Jackson.

On Sunday the 12 O'clock Field Trial club hosted a one day trial. Butch Cassidy bested the field in the Open Shooting Dog with 16 entries. Butch ran great race with 5 perfect finds, I was very proud of him. All in all a very good weekend, in spite of the weather.

I would like to thank Scott Berg for all the work he put into this trial.