Dave Richards
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Apr 2015
Location: church hill tn
Posts: 5738 |
quote:
Originally posted by Mark Zepp
First – Congratulations to everyone who made it to the finals in Peru, Indiana and a “thank you” to the UKC staff and Eukanuba for putting on a great hunt at a terrific facility.
Second - Steve Burkholder – I was looking forward to your World Hunt analysis and the Zepp family and many more folks are praying for your healthy outcome. Keep fighting!
Elvis –30 years or so ago, I don’t remember where or what year, as time and the miles are catching up to me, I was at a club house and heard a few guys running down Russ Bellar. You calmly listened and then let them know they could step outside if they wanted to keep talking like that. I had no idea who you were. When I later found out I thought, “The world would be a better place if we all had friends like Marv Schmucker.” I really don’t know you well other than to say much more than “Hello” but as the years have gone by I have thought, “Not only coon hunting, but the world would be a better place with more guys like Marv Schmucker.” I have never had a chance to tell Bellar this and hope he appreciates your friendship and what a standup guy you are and have been over the years for him. I have heard nothing but good things about you for decades in a world and sport where some folks seem to relish in belittling others.
I love this sport and the people in it. When some of the kinds of posts that have been written on here are up it is never good for the sport or any of us. Coffee stops, quick stores, barber shops and sometimes internet boards are not where a lot of positive energy and common sense thinking usually takes place. I will not even pretend to know all the facts but I do know the folks in charge at UKC and am feel very confident the right decisions were made. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Some of the things being said here are beyond out of line.
When I watch football games on TV I am amazed at all of the camera angles and slow motion shots when a penalty is called. One official sees it this way, another sees it a completely different way. Then Joe Buck and Troy Aikman ‘go to’ a studio host in New York for more analysis. I often wonder how there are so few problems in our sport, where in the middle of the night, on a cast, we are trying to “see” the “unseen” and determine what is going on by simply listening to the dogs.
I read the rule several times, and I did not see where it said “if the dog only goes 3 feet when turned loose don’t scratch it but if over 20 yards scratch the dog”. You turn the dog loose, it is a scratchable offense. Period. If you have a question about what was said by a judge let the panel know about it at the time not after the decision has been made or the next day. The cast was not even half way over when this occurred. I have seen guys up 500+ in an hour and then minused out twenty minutes later. The hour can catch a dog, treeing a possum or a host of other things. We will never know, but there was a lot of time left.
Rules are rules and sometimes are absolutely ridiculous but they are the rules. How many guys over the years got scratched for simply not signing their score card after their dog treed a coon by themselves to get to the top 20? Plenty!! It seemed to me like the MOH thought it was a badge of honor to scratch a guy for this instead of simply reminding everyone to sign the card before they placed it on the table as they arrived back to the club house. The results of many hunts were changed because of this rule but it did not generate much interest. I say again, losing at this level for any reason is extremely tough. I am 100% certain, that the guys hunting ole Demon and Striker back in their day would have questioned this rule, not given a dadgum about sportsmanship, and turned the world absolutely upside down if the scratch call was not made. It is a little too “rich for my taste” to imply or insinuate otherwise or try to drum up any kind of sympathy.
It is easy to be a GREAT winner, it is tough to be a good loser. There is so much disappointment, so many “what if’s?”, so many “What was I thinking?”, “Why didn’t I simply make that call?”. It is easy to make calls from the bleachers where things appear in slow motion, it is tough to do when you’re in the field and dogs are flying around and things are happening at lightning speed. Guys that make the finals for the most part live this sport about 600 days a year. They dream of winning a World Hunt and put the work int to make it happen. It takes a great dog and so many breaks along the way to just make it into the finals. Guys who are starting out and make it there assume it is easy to get that far and will be easy to get back again next year….they quickly find out there is nothing easy about it. It is tough on family life and relationships. I wish no one had to lose, but then on one would win!
Good Hunting Friends!!
Folks, this is the best post I have ever read on this FORUM, it was well thought with facts, not emotions and simply TELLS IT LIKE IT IS OR SHOULD BE. We can not let emotions get in the way of FACTS. Thank you Mark for a GREAT POST . Dave
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Dave Richards Treeing Walkers Reg American Saddlebred and Registered Rocky Mt. Show Horses
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10-02-2021 02:29 PM
