Teddy Hill, a near neighbor of Charles, was the recipient of the newly created $500.00 Breeder Award by ABCA, Inc.  Teddy owned the sire and dam of Pete.	Anita Young with Jim, Robin Nuffer with Sue, and H. P. Roller with Aggie had clean runs and their final placing was determined by time.
Greg Estes and Chris won the Nursery Trial.  As the breeder of Chris, Cindy Vondette collected the third $500.00 ABCA, Inc. Breeder Award because her female also produced Angie Coker's Sam, a former Sheepdog Nursery and Open winner.  Chris was by Bob Roe's Scott and Sam was by Cathy Conner's Bob.	In the second spot was Steve McCall with Katch.  Katch was the first dog to complete the qualifying course in the allotted time and that was an Open run before the Nursery.  Robin Nuffer's Nap, 2001 Nursery winner, was a member of the top 20 Open dogs this year.
Competition was keen in all qualifying and final rounds with several dogs working in both the Nursery and Open Classes.  Time limit was 7 minutes, looking back it probably should have been 8,  for qualifying rounds and ten minutes for the finals.  A pen was added to the fetch gates, chute, and two drive gates for the finals.  English/continental crossbred heifers ranging in weight from 450-800 pounds were worked.  Cattle were not dog broke but had been moved in small groups across the pasture three times by dogs.  These cattle were very sensitive to the presence of and pressure from the handlers and heavy to the exhaust since they normally traveled that way for supplemental feed.  All cattle were spotted and exhausted by ranch personnel mounted on horseback.  Sonia Craig was coordinator for spotting cattle and Ranch Manager Perry Patterson coordinated cattle activities.  Donna Thompson worked with Tollie Nelson in recording times and scores.  Harold Thompson worked the cattle pens for four days.  Some of the cattle had been used earlier in team penning competitions. Significant amounts of rain had fallen during the four days before the trial and the rather flat ryegrass covered area was very soggy.  Clear cool, very cold, sunny warmer, and cloudy much warmer weather prevailed, respectively, for the four days of trialing.  An excellent steak dinner for handlers, their spouses, and trial workers was sponsored, prepared and served on Friday night by the Arkansas Cattlemen's Association.  Francis Raley served cheese and cracker snacks on Thursday (cheddar) and Friday (edam).  Three gallons of buttered pecan ice cream provided cones for the first 80 people to respond Saturday afternoon.  The ice cream was served, by the same person as in 2001, in 15 minutes compared with 19 minutes in 2001.  On Sunday jalapeno cheese, crackers, and muscadine grape juice were the afternoon treats. Bud Finley and his employees were most gracious hosts and provided excellent facilities and cattle for the finals.  USBCHA President, Mike Canaday and Dan Gill, VP presented the awards.  Francis Raley, Barbra Ross, and Tollie Nelson did their usual fine job of keeping the records accurate.  Gary Westbrook reported that one person got lost on their way home.  The shortcut was through Ferndale, AR.  He never got that far. THANKS TO ALL THAT HELPED MAKE THE 2002 NATIONAL COWDOG TRIAL A SUCCESS.

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