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NITECH GRCH Bear Pen Rio Grande Roper
Entered by: Steve Fielder
Updated by: Steve Fielder
6/3/2007 12:16:36 PM
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Weight
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55 pounds
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Description
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Dark brindle - no white
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Dob
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6/24/1993
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Owner Sire
Charlie and Jody Hill of Hempstead, TX
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Owner Dam
Steve Fielder of Raleigh, NC
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"A sixth-generation Bear Pen Plott."
Nite Champion Grand Champion Bear Pen Rio Grande Roper was also one of my all time favorite hounds. His ability came to the surface at a young age. He was born at Gratton, Virginia at my brother's house. I had taken his dam, Santina Grande to Texas and bred her to Hill's Plott Solaman and my brother Randy agreed to whelp the litter for me. He picked Roper for me.
I took Roper to one of the greatest pup trainers in the world of coon hunting, Ed Mead of Springport, Michigan to have him started on coon. Ed's Blueticks are amazing at a very young age due to breeding and his training regimen. Ed told me that Roper was one of the best pups he ever started.
I brought Roper home at 7 months of age. The first time I took him to the woods, the Bear Pen Plott Tammy female out of Nite CH CH Bear Pen Plotts Bronco treed a coon and Roper backed her. She left the tree and he stayed, having the coon which I put down for him. He was off and running and never looked back.
When he was thirteen months old, I took him to NPHA Plott Days in Salem, Illinois. I pleasure hunted him with Everett Weems. Everett always reminded me of what a good dog he thought Roper was after that hunt. Roper fell out of a red hot cornfield race and had the coon while other dogs continued to run. That was Roper.
With my busy work schedule, I realized I needed help with Roper in competition. I knew he was special and I wanted to put him before the public. In 1997 I met a young man named Heath Hyatt of Narrows, Virginia at Plott Days. He had won the Isaiah Kidd Award with his Brandy female and I had won the Opposite Sex Isaiah Kidd Award with Piney River Wrangler, Roper's half brother. We took some pictures at the motel on Sunday morning in Pomeroy, OH and a lasting friendship emerged. Heath took Roper to Virginia and made him Nite Champion. He won a UKC Regional Qualifying Event with more than 50 dogs entered with him. He would place him several times at Plott Days. Heath will tell you that Roper was one of the hardest hunting hounds he has followed and he has a wealth of hunting experience for a man his age. I don't think a tougher hunter lives than Heath.
I hunted Roper in the 1998 UKC World Championship Zone Semifinal in Jeromesville, OH, just after I came to work at PKC. Roper won his cast on Friday night, beating a Black and Tan female that would come back with a better cast win on Saturday and advance to the Finals. She ended up placing second in the UKC World that year. Roper had cold trailed a pair of coons out of a big cornfield and treed them and the female backed him on the tree. The handler of the Black and Tan found the coons for me. Roper would finish 21st in the Zone and miss the trip to Iowa, a trip I couldn't make anyway.
Roper was never hunted on bear. I felt that with his worth as a coon dog and stud dog it wasn't worth the risk. He was bred to produce bear dogs and he did. He was bred to several females and I don't believe any pup out of him was as good as he was on coon but there have been some good ones. Chad Barth's Trigger was an outstanding bear dog. Late Night Annie was an outstanding, cold-nosed coon dog and was catching bobcats for Chad in Wisconsin. Evan Workman of West Virginia has an outstanding bear dog out of Roper that he calls Drum. Bill Slaughter is hunting a nice Roper female out of Ronnie Barbour's GRNITECH Wendy female. Damon Hoard of North Carolina has a nice Roper female named Barbie. Keith McElmurray's Candy female is out of Roper and Heath Hyatt's GRNITECH Frosty Brandy female.
I qualified Roper for the PKC World Hunt in the fall of 2000. Steve Taylor of Beaver Dam, KY had hunted him for me in 1999 and he lost on a slick persimmon tree. I hunted Roper on a Wednesday night and he needed a coon on the last tree to win. He had a den and Phillip McMahan of Texas won the cast with his Walker female China. I sent Roper back to Michigan to my friend Kevin Swartz' house. Kevin called that Roper wasn't eating right. He brought him to me and I took him immediately to the vet. His kidneys had completely failed and I put him to rest one week to the day from the night I hunted him at Aurora.
I buried Roper on a ridge overlooking one of my favorite hunting spots in Michigan. I still visit his grave when I go back there hunting. Aside from Bronco, I never had a dog that had the compete package of looks, nose, speed, and treeing ability like Roper. Next to Bronco, he is my all time favorite.
Roper's speed on track was amazing. He could lap dogs in a hot cornfield race. I believe he inherited the blazing speed of Bear Pen Plott Blackie. His sire was out of Blackie and his dam was a granddaughter of Blackie's. He also was a classic tree dog that would tree in any company. He would back off the tree if the temperature was getting hot in there but would be barking every breath.
There are many, many Roper stories to share and I will on this site as time goes by.
Copyright 2004 by Stephen F. Fielder
"All rights reserved"
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| | GRCH Weems' Plott Butch (NPHA HOF) |
| | NITECH Weems' Plott Punie (NPHA HOF) |
| | Weems' Plott Jill (NPHA HOF) |
| Sire | Hill's Plott Solaman |
| | CH Bear Pen Rip |
| | Bear Pen Plott Blackie |
| | CH Bear Pen Fancy (NPHA HOF)
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NITECH GRCH Bear Pen Rio Grande Roper
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| | Mountaineer Santana |
| | McLennan's Plott Milton |
| | Brown's Plott Ginger |
| Dam | Bear Pen Santina Grande |
| | NITECH CH Bear Pen Plotts Bronco (NPHA HOF) |
| | CH Bronco's Fancy Julie (NPHA HOF) |
| | Bear Pen Plott Blackie |
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Copyright © 2006-2007 Steve Fielder
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