Beech Tree News Network

A total of 70 young and excited Beagle hounds along with their owners and handlers from Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Missouri arrived in Butler County on Saturday, January 27, for the one-day Winter Beagle Derby, which was held on the running grounds at Jetson.

Juvenile males and females in four classes competed on the rugged proving grounds of the United Beagle Gun Dog Federation to graduate from beginner status and into being known from now on as a true rabbit dog.

They fought their way through briars, slogged through the swamp, and trailed runaway wild rabbits into the bullrushes with fierce determination to qualify to run with the big dogs in the future. In a Derby Field Trial, barking and baying two-year-old hounds are set loose in packs of about seven dogs each to track down a loose renegade rabbit, and the dogs that corner the rabbit first are declared qualifiers.

Along with the Trial activities, all comers enjoyed a freshly cooked breakfast and lunch served up in the modern clubhouse by Woody Woodcock and the Rev. Otis Brooks.

“We are glad to see these folks come because we always do extra business during these events,”  said Kay Hampton of the Farm Boy Restaurant. The day’s activities finished up in a cold rain that threatened to turn into sleet, and many tired dogs.