Labor Day Weekend and we were off to the Bar Eoff Ranch at Clinton, Ark., for the 23rd annual National Chuck Wagon Racing Championship. My wife Pat and our friend Lorna Wilson came with me. I no longer co-announce but help in various ways. Four to five hours announcing the fast pace action of the championship out in that hot sun got a little tough on this old cowboy. Andy Steward of Louisiana, who does lots of PBR and PRCA rodeos, handles my former part of the co-announcing. This year he was worried about things in his home state because of hurricane Gustav bearing down and had received several reports via his cell phone and gave advice for folks going back home on Sunday evening.
I want to thank all the Ozarks Farm & Neighbor readers who spoke to me about the paper and my column. That is nice and there were lots of you. A person writes a column and his only contact is the computer and the paper unless he meets all the folks that read it and there were lots of you sharing the weekend at the races.
Of course Danny Newland, who is one of my favorite rodeo announcers and friends, holds the other mic at the races. Danny retired from teaching agriculture a few years to follow his love, sports casting. He’s a long time voice of the Ozark, Mo., rodeo and many more. In his youth he rode bucking horses. In fact back on July 4, 1976, he and Dan Eoff were entered in the Rodeo of the Ozarks at Springdale. That was about my first year as a rodeo director there and while I didn’t know them then—we all three celebrated the Centennial of the United States together.
Bud and Brenda Crews who ranch out of Plato, Mo., sat beside me at the final performance. They brought their horses down and rode all over the thousands of acres that Dan has trail rights to use. Many of you might not know, but Clinton, Ark., took a bad tornado hit last spring as well as the town of Damascus, Ark., south of them. The devastation was shocking to see. Bud and his wife make lots of trail rides and we discussed some of the places they’ve ridden. Theirs is a cow-calf operation and perhaps some day I’ll get a chance to drop in and visit them. They also take the paper.
I want to report that Tonto Shepherd and his wife Beverly won a heat in the Big Mule Race. After ringing up more last places than anyone living, their mules spooked I think and they won one. The Shepherds always have fun and also haul the Rodeo of the Ozark Stage Coach with their mules. Jeanie Horn who writes many articles for this newspaper and I were talking to them before the awards and we both cracked up when he said, “I guess they just ran away.”
For 23 years Dan and Peggy Eoff have opened their ranch and hearts to thousands of people for this week. Maybe I can give you an idea of how many were there camped out for the whole week plus the drive-in watchers on the three races days. There were right at 6,000 Coggins-tested horses checked at the gates.
The largest equine event in the world and the old west lives on in the hills west of Clinton, Ark. They don’t need any more attendees, but no matter whether you bring a horse, sit in a seat or drive a wagon racing outfit, they’ll treat you like family.
Our little cowboy preacher Johnny who usually does church on Sunday couldn’t come because his wife is fighting cancer and is in our prayers. The job was left to me so I told them a story that Red Steagal tells. About a cowboy who was lost in a Montana storm fixing fence and his truck wouldn’t start. He of course died and when he got to heaven complained to St. Peter, "Why didn’t God answer my prayers?" St. Peter said, "You hadn’t called us in long time and we didn’t have your current address." The cowboy agreed. St. Peter said, "We sent a tow truck to Minnesota to find you." So you be sure God’s got your forwarding address.
Western novelist Dusty Richards and his wife Pat live on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas. For more information about his books you can email Dusty by visiting www.ozarksfn.com and clicking on 'Contact Us' or call 1-866-532-1960.
