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| Dick Dunsmore |
Just a little background about where I come from. This is a picture of my father, Dick Dunsmore. He rode Bareback horses back in the day. You just don’t pick rodeo, it seems rodeo picks you. It is not for everyone, it is a passion deep down in your soul. I don’t recall it ever being easy, but maybe it is the rodeo family you become a part of, or the adventure, or the freedom of running down the road traveling the country trying to ride that next 8 seconds or make that perfect run. Usually making just enough money to keep you going. My sister and Sister-in-law runs barrels, both my brothers ride bulls.
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| Billy Turner |
and Of
course, I would end up marrying a Saddle Bronc Rider.
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| Billy Turner |
My barrel
horses and the stock contractor’s broncs and bulls are very much respected
athletes.
It seems rodeo picks them as well and they seem passionate about their job too. It is not for every horse or bull.
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| Christy Turner |
Billy and I
would travel to 75-125 rodeos every year over the next 13 years until a
big surprise God gave to us.
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| Calista and Cassity Turner |
Our twin
baby girls were born in 2006.
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| Cassity and Calista Turner |
We slowed
down on our rodeos but it didn’t stop us.
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| At Mesquite Rodeo, the Turners being interviewed. |
Everywhere
we went so did the Turner Twins.
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| Billy, Calista, & Cassity Turner |
The girls
have always traveled really good, but I did learn the double stroller only worked
for indoor arenas.
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| Billy, Cassity, and Calista Turner |
We had to
upgrade to the big tires and four-wheel drive wagon.
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| Cassity and Calista Turner |
I could get
that wagon through any fairgrounds.
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| Cassity, Calista, and Billy Turner being interviewed at Mesquite Rodeo. |
Of course,
the Turner Twins had no choice but to be bitten with the love of horses and
rodeo too.
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| Calista and Cassity Turner |
They are
horse crazy and are excited for High School Rodeos to start up.
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| Christy Turner |
Rodeo has
been our life and our passion but so is hunting and being in the outdoors. Billy took me deer hunting in 1994 and a new
passion ignited. I keep learning and
growing and my passion gets stronger and stronger.
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| Cassity and Calista Turner |
If Callie
and Cassie are not on a back of a horse they are in the deer stand with
me. The girls have been hunting with me
since they were babies in their car carriers.
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| Cassity Turner |
We had bought
a Gamo air rifle for the girls to learn how to look through a scope when they
first started shooting at targets.
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| Calista Turner |
We have
practiced gun safety since they were babies and they have both completed their Texas
Parks and Wildlife Hunters Education Course.
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| Billy and Cassity Turner |
At five
years old they got their first bow.
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| Cassity and Calista Turner |
We are still
practicing and haven’t let them hunt with a bow yet.
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| Henderson County Wildlife Committee Spring Rendezvous |
I love being
a part of the Henderson County Wildlife Committee. We are part of a program through the Texas
Agrilife Extension Office. Our purpose
is to educate and promote the importance of wildlife and habitat to adults and
youth of our county. My favorite event
that we host is the Spring Rendezvous.
We hold this field trip in May to all of the fifth graders in
Henderson County. Over the 2 day event
we will have nearly 500 fifth graders rotate through our 6 stations. We have help with volunteers from the Texas
Parks and Wildlife, Texas Game Wardens and the NRCS. We also have a fishing station, a BB Gun
station and a bow and arrow station.
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| Christy Turner helping assist the 5th graders |
I love to
help with the bow and arrow station. You
think living out here in the rural Henderson County most these kids have
experienced a lot of these outdoor activities but in reality, they
haven’t. 75% of the time the 5th
grader is scared to pull the bow back and they think they can’t do it. But when they push past their fears and pull
the bow back and that arrow flies and hits the target, you can almost see their
confidence rising while they are smiling from ear to ear and giving you a high
five.
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| Wild Turkey near Cross Roads in Henderson County |
I also love
supporting the National Wildlife Turkey Federation. Since 2014 with the help of the Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department they have been releasing several wild turkeys trying to
re-introduce them back in our area. They
have trapped these wild turkeys in West Virgina and Iowa were the they are
heavily populated and they are tagging them and adding gps devices before
releasing them. They seem to be doing
very well and thriving.
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| Cassity, Christy, and Calista Turner |
Being a
parent, mentor or role model to a child is the richest reward you could ever
receive in this world. Money cannot buy
this reward for you but it does cost your time.
I know this can be hard this day and age when most families have both
the mother and father working out of the home to make ends meet. Or single parents raising children trying to
play both the father and mother role, it is hard to give extra time. My husband and I both have full time jobs and
our children are involved in after school activities, music lessons and
4-H. It feels like we run and run every
day and don’t have time to just enjoy our time with each other before we have
to run off to our next activity or homework.
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| Calista and Cassity Turner |
The outdoors
and hunting season is very important to our family. This is our time as a family to enjoy hours
of each other’s time and exploring what God has created in nature. I believe these last twelve years of taking
my girls hunting, fishing and camping has taught them to respect nature.
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| Calista's first deer, 5 years old. |
I feel it
has taught them several life skills and have helped them build strong characters.
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| Cassity and Calista Turner 5 years old with Calista's first deer she harvested. |
Callie and
Cassie are not sitting inside playing the newest video games on the market,
they are outside exploring Mother Nature and helping to put organic groceries
on the table.
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| Calista Turner |
They
understand even with waking up at 5am in 30-degree weather and hiking through
the woods and sitting patiently for hours, you might not even see a deer. But you will sit in silence just mother and
daughter and watch the sun rise together.
You may watch a beautiful red bird peck at the ground right in front of
you. Have a swarm of butterflies fly all
around you, or witness a squirrel get mad at you for sitting in their
tree.
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| Cassity's first deer, 5 years old. |
It is these
little gifts God has given us that we miss sometimes in our very busy lives.
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| Calista Turner |
I believe it
is important especially for women to teach our youth about the outdoors.
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| Christy and Calista Turner |
To let them
realize it is not just a manley macho thing or bragging rights about trophy
hunting.
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| Cassity and Calista Turner |
But
on how important it is to preserve our habitats and wildlife management.
My kids know
where our dinner comes from.
Fresh
organic meat at our family table that we worked hard for is much
appreciated.
We process
our own meat and Callie and Cassie always help.
When it is a deer one of the girls had shot I write their name on the
package. So when I cook that meal, I
always say, “Thank you Callie or Cassie for this nutritious meal you worked
hard for and provided for the family.”
The smile on their face says it all and they usually have a happy plate
after dinner.
I don’t
believe it is ever too early or too late to start taking a kid out hunting,
fishing, hiking, or exploring. It does
the soul good and the bonding experience is worth more than gold.
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| Wild Turkey dinner |
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| Duck Kabobs |
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| Deer Steak |
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| Deer Stew |
Some people
think hunting is just going out and shooting everything that walks in front of
you. That is not the case with me or my
family, and several other hunters that I know.
We raise black Angus cows and I can almost compare our deer hunting to
the same as our cow production.
We watch our
herds year-round. We put out
supplemental feeds and minerals for both.
We plant fields to let them graze
on and we cull the older ones to help the younger ones thrive.
Both in our
Cow herd and our deer herd the only difference is we don’t fence in the deer
they are wild and free to go anywhere.
But if you keep their food available year-round they don’t travel to far
away.
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| Christy Turner |
I start deer
hunting the first weekend in October and usually finish the deer season the
first weekend in January. I put in a lot
of time those three months. I might sit
out in the woods from sun rise to sun set and not even see a deer.
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| Christy Turner |
Then the
next time I hunt I will have 20 bucks grazing in front of me. I usually only shoot 1 buck a year and I want
to make sure he is an older mature buck so I am picky and let the others walk.
But it is just as exciting to sit there and watch all the wildlife around you
and they don’t even know you are there.
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| Christy Turner |
I use to
wear Billy’s hand me down camo clothing or I would shop the little boys section
to try and find a better fit. It worked
for a while but then 7 years ago I discovered an amazing company based out of
Gunnison Colorado called Prois.
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| Cassity, Christy, and Calista Turner |
I have been
on their field staff position wearing and promoting their hunting apparel for
women and girls ever since. Prois is
designed with the serious female hunter in mind. Each piece is created to provide the highest
level of function to help improve performance in the field.
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| Christy and Calista Turner |
They select
only the top rated performance fabrics to provide wind-stopping, wicking ,
waterproofing, silence and thermos-regulation.
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| Cassity Turner |
The Prois
Posse is a sisterhood throughout the country, reminding me of similarities of
our rodeo family. We are all spread out
and at anytime any of them will be there for you when you need them or just a
place to stay as your traveling through.
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| Calista Turner |
Soon after I
joined the Prois staff I was contacted by Huntress Life Magazine asking if I
could write a story about a hunt I had just recently been on.
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| Christy Turner |
I
am not a writer, but I had a lot of fun with this. For the next 3 years they would contact me
every other month asking if I had a new story.
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| Turner Twins |
Of course, I
always had something to write about.
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| Christy Turner |
During the
slow times when it wasn’t hunting season I wrote about how to clean and care
for your guns.
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| Christy Turner |
About a
fabulous bass fishing weekend and how to clean, prepare and then cook the fish.
I talked
about attending ladies only hunts. I
have attended several of these over the years and have had a blast at each
one. The ladies hunts I have attended
have been here in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and
this latest fishing adventure up in Alaska.
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| Christy Turner |
I wrote
about working so hard and giving it all you got for the whole season of Turkey
season and still coming home empty handed.
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| ChristyTurner |
It is not
about going out and shooting and killing, its about the things you learn on the
way and getting to try again.
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| Christy Turner |
I wrote
about how many hours I spend deer hunting just to get busted by the change in
the wind direction. I am very careful
with my scent control. Before I hunt I
shower and wash my hair in a no scent shampoo.
I use the no scent soap. I wear
the special no scent deodorant. I put my
hunting clothes that have been washed in the special no scent detergent and dried
with the special dryer sheet which has
been safely stored in the plastic zip bag so no odors could get on them. I spray myself down with the no scent spray
even on the bottom of my hunting boots and what happens. The wind will change directions and those
deer are very smart.
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| Christy Turner |
How
to care for your trophy if you are wanting to take it to a taxidermist to
preserve your memories for a lifetime.
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| Christy Turner |
Tips and
tricks about Shed hunting. We will spend
the whole day walking and hiking a grid like pattern looking for deer sheds
usually the best time is in March.
5 years ago
I met Jon and Stacy Sissney hosts of His & Hers Outdoors tv show. We became good friends and they asked me to
be a part of their team.
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| Cassity and Calista Turner |
His and Hers
Outdoors motto is Real Lives, Real Families, Real Hunting.
Nothing is
staged or fake, we have had a lot of fun.
It feels like we get to share our home movies of our adventures with
millions of people nationwide.
Jon gave me
a video camera and told me just to film everything we do. It has been a challenge when I self-film
which happens a lot. I have missed a lot
of opportunities because I could not get the camera on the deer or turkey or
hog. Sometimes thing happen fast.
Billy and
even the girls help film, we all take turns when we can. Thankfully His and Hers Outdoors have magical
producers, who can turn my mess into a story.
We are a
team of three families, Jon and Stacy are in Oklahoma, Josh is in Idaho and we
are the Texas family.
For the past
7 years the show has aired nationwide on the Pursuit Chanel.
This year
they are moving towards short films and have a radio show on 1640 AM The
Eagle. Saturday mornings at 5:30 am and
from 8am-9am
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| Angelle, Ruth, and Christy in Homer Alaska |
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| Christy Turner with a "chicken" Halibut |
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| Christy Turner, Chickaloon Alaska |
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| Christy Turner |
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| Christy Turner |
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| Ruth making Moose Chili |
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| Billy and Christy with a His and Hers Deer hunt! |
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| The End, thank you for your time. |
