NBHA Western Regional Championship 3-16-25 results
NBHA Western Regional Championship Winners
Champion- T D Sugar Show O/H-Tim Thornton
RU- Rendrags Lucky Piper- O/H Weldon Gardner
The NBHA Western Regional Championship commenced March 16, 2025. The Championship
had been postponed from its original date due to weather and was rescheduled to follow the
NBHA Free For All, at Croton Creek Ranch. Participants and dogs had already
endured 4 days of high temperatures, 80 mph winds, and then cold! The temperature
fluctuated 50 degrees during the 8 braces of the Western Championship. 4 dogs found wild
coveys. With 6 Covey’s of wild quail being located during this a single course field trial.
The morning started off a calm crisp 22 degrees with absolutely no wind the weather climbed
into the 70” s by mid afternoon. It’s been said that there’s no place with more unpredictable
scent conditions than western Oklahoma and this day would do nothing to dispute that.
Under the conditions bird work came at a premium, here’s a synopsis of dogs that finished with
bird work:
Brace 2
Uptown’s West Mountain Boone Fresh off of his Top Call Back Dog Award and Runner Up
Championship in the NBHA National Free For All a day earlier and handled by Jon Smith
continued his bird finding ways with 2 finds including a wild covey find in less than ideal
scenting conditions. The young 3-year-old pointer running his 3rd 1 hour brace in 4 days, gave
a good effort on the ground. He showed his wild bird hunting background in the way that he
interpreted the course and cover. His performance led the field for a good portion of the day
and he narrowly missed his second Runner Up Championship in 2 days.
Brace 5
Mayfield’s Miss Kitty, call name Rona, had a scorching start to her brace off of breakaway.
Disappearing over Willie’s Ridge on the right side of the course with her brace mate, Bromance
handled by Ryan Eichelberger in the same area. Rona showed back to the front at about the
15-minute mark as handler Tim Thornton and gallery crossed the creek after Willie’s Ridge.
Rona had the course to herself for the remainder of the braces Bromance didn’t return. Rona
hunted gamely making some strong moves to the front. Rona showed a lot of grit as she’s
fresh of of whelping a litter of puppies and the temperatures had warmed considerably. At
about :40 Rona’s handler called point. The bird ran but was eventually flushed by handler Tim
Thornton and all was in order. Rona finished her gutsy hour to the front and still going strong.
During her find a bird got up under the judge’s horse which caused quite a stir and the horses
reaction and subsequent rodeo led to a lot of conjecture and laughter for the rest of the day.
Brace 6
The weather continued to warm up and so did the action as KC’s Next Gen Handled by Ken
Sauer and Rendrag’s Lucky Piper handled by Weldon Gardner turned loose. Both dogs had
big races throughout the brace. Ben had a find at :35 with Piper backing below the 1 hour
course viewing area hill. At about :45 Piper was found pointed in a group of trees and plumb
thickets below the 30-minute course viewing area hill it was a wild covey and all was in order.
Both dogs continued strong races out across the open prairie finishing to the front.
Brace 8
TD Sugar Show handled by Owner Tim Thornton was the last dog turned loose after 5 grueling
days on the single one-hour middle course at Croton Creek.
Sugar broke away in warm conditions with the Oklahoma wind making its presence known.
She made a big move to the front right of course up onto Willies ridge and then hunted the
ridge to the front before dropping down into the valley. Thornton watered her there and then
sent her to the right side of the course, as she swung to the front, she hit scent and pointed.
She was in the creek bottom with a plumb thicket above her. It was a tough flushing situation and no birds were produced. Handler chose to relocate and Sugar once again established
point. The bird ran past her and left the thicket in front of the judges and all was in order after
the shot. Sugar continued forward working objective to objective down the long grassy chute.
Finally, making a sweeping cast to the left and pointing. As handler walked in to flush a covey
of wild birds blew out in every direction including right at the dog. After the shot, Sugar was
once again released and hit the second water station well in front of handler she was in and out
and continued on. Judges pointed her out well to the front as she topped a ridge and
disappeared into the valley. She was seen moving well to the front again but failed to reappear
after dropping off of the edge the the dry pond. Jon Smith was scouting and handler asked the
judges if he could send him for a look. Permission granted, Jon was gone a short time when
point was called. An extended flushing effort was made and handler deduced the birds had
made an escape and decided to take his dog on. Up and over Willie’s ridge and back onto the
front side of the course Sugar made a cast to the right into a group of plumb thickets with no
success. As she crossed back to the front running strong, and disappearing into the next
group of thickets.
Down through the creek and across the pond damn Sugar hit scent again and began to trail.
After about 150 yards a covey of wild birds took to the air too far to the front to be pointed but
close enough that they had had enough. Sugar put on the breaks and stopped to flush.
Handler shot and made up the 250 plus yards up the hill to retrieve his dog. Sugar took to the
front and went out of sight over the last ridge. As handler topped the ridge he expected to see
her well to front in the open flats but instead she had gone left up the steep hill and was now
bounding down the steep face and out onto the flats to the front. She went to the left of a
plumb thicket draw, using the wind to her advantage her gait changed and she dropped off into
the draw and didn’t reemerge. The judge called point, the dog was standing at a steep
downward angle on the side of the cut. As handler entered the cut, wild birds erupted in all
directions. Time was called and the judge remarked “thats how you end it!”
Field Trials aren’t possible without individuals taking time out of their busy schedules to
participate, judge, plant birds, drive dog wagon, cook and any other number of things that
come up that need taken care of. It is with the sincerest thank you that we recognize everyone
involved that helped and attended this trial. I would like to thank our judges for their
attentiveness during a long day in the saddle as well as Jesse Lambert the original chair of the
event before it’s postponement. He put in a lot of work to line up judges and trophies and
organize the event. The NBHA is an incredible organization, without them and their sponsors
these events wouldn’t be possible.
A little background:
This being the first Championship that we’ve won, I wanted to share a little about Sugar and
her development and the place she holds in our string and as part of our family. Sugar was a
Covid baby as they say. Shortly after we acquired her the whole world shut down it seemed.
Her breeder and my good friend David Uphoff allowed me the privilege to own her. In those
early days, my wife Melissa who was learning to ride and learning about field trialing would go
out every evening with me and ride and run Sugar. We had other young dogs with her as well
but none that found birds like her. It became a daily family outing to drive roads in the
evenings and work her on ditch pheasants. My wife Melissa, daughter Meadow and baby
Hazel. Later we worked her on Prairie chickens, pheasants and quail that were plentiful
around our little farmstead. She was a November born pup out of a Funseekers Rebel Frozen
Semen breeding to Deep Creek Myrna. As such she was just 10 months old when she began
her derby season! We broke her at 12 months old and at 14 months old she narrowly missed a
Runner Up Championship with 3 broke finds in the Region 17 Shooting Dog Championship! As a derby, she had wins at the Big Sky Open Shooting dog Derby in Circle Montana as well as in
Kansas and Colorado. Our whole family has been there watching and helping as we developed this magnificent dog and it just so happened that they were watching and cheering from the dog wagon as her run progressed. The excitement on the kids faces as Sugar was announced Champion is going to stick with me forever. Truly a family achievement and we couldn’t be prouder.
By Tim Thornton
