Post Hunt Interview With Ashley Hopkins

Lula, Mississippi - Ashley Hopkins was a tired puppy when I caught up with him for a phone interview after the award ceremony at the Isle of Capri Casino. He had in his possession the keys to a shiny new red Dodge pickup and it obviously felt good. "It was a dream come true for me. I've always wanted to do something like this. Winning the Super Stakes Championship and now this, it's just a dream come true. This was the first hunt I had him in since the Super Stakes."

Once again the amazing "Sun" dog had come through big time for Hopkins despite a bout with a reaction to two rounds of hunting in "blue nettles," the feared itch weeds that infest the Mississippi River bottoms where the Handler Showdown was held.

"He got into blue nettles both rounds on Friday night. He was staggering when we got ready to go hunting tonight. They get into a dog's lungs. There's an old man named Eugene Bane that brought me a shot for Sun today. He went to the vet and had a shot for this after having trouble with it himself. Ricky Hawkins also gave Sun a bunch of Nutracal and some prime rib to make him feel better. He did every thing he could to help me and so did this old gentlemen. That's the way it should be and I sure do thank them. I feel like the dog couldn't have made it without their help. He was real wobbly. They say it effects the nervous system. He would jump out of truck today and fall on his face and he was staggering in the photo session today. He had hunted two rounds in them last night.

"But you know Steve, there's something about that old coon that makes them forget about things. He struck right off the lead on the first drop and I felt better after that. He'll give you all he's got even if he's not 100 Percent. He won the Super Stakes Championship with a broken tail. He's got lots of heart. If there's any dog in this world that's got it, it's him."

In our play by play coverage we indicated, apparently in error that Sunrise had 3 minutes of a 15 minute rule left when the dogs were released after the time out in which Ole Rebel's Style was killed on the highway. "Actually, it was one of those deals that worked out. I usually lead him out of the woods without a lead. When we walked out after we treed the second coon, going to another dog, we walked past him and he followed me and they started the 15 on him. But he had struck back in for 25, before the time out was called and that killed the fifteen."

I asked Hopkins about the unfortunate accident involving Ole Rebel's Style. "We walked across a levy and the judge, James Love asked us if we thought it was far enough from the road. Where we turned loose wasn't all that far from the road but the guide said we would hunt the other way. It was one of those deals where a car came by every 15 or 20 minutes. There was no way to prevent what happened because we had three dogs treed and Lace was at large. We couldn't call time out. I talked to Shane a little while ago and he and Terry are pretty upset. They had some good offers for the dog. Shane just packed up and headed back to Oklahoma."

I asked Ashley about the future plans for Tequila Sunrise after winning the truck pushed the hound's lifetime earnings to around $48 thousand. "I'm going to go home and doctor him up and get him over this deal and get him ready for the Pup Shootout and we've got an entry in the Pro hunt in Leoma, TN. We'll probably breed him some. We're supposed to breed one next week, just here and there. We aren't going to hunt any open hunts, maybe just the Pro Runoff and some of the bigger hunts."

There's no doubt Hopkins and Tequila Sunrise will be a force to be reckoned with in those events and if the dog is healthy, they could be unstoppable. We congratulate Buzz Lynch and Ashley Hopkins for this huge and prestigious win with PCH Tequila Sunrise. It's fair to say that for the Tennessee partners, the "Sun" is just coming up!

"All the Winners. All the Time!"

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