A Conversation With....Dan Eoff

Each Labor Day weekend for the past 17 years, a growing number of folks have headed to Clinton, Ark., to watch the National Championship Chuckwagon Race. Held at the Bar OF Ranch (that's "Bar Oh-Ef"), it's the brainchild of Dan and Peggy Eoff (prononced Oaf). What started as a small gathering of friends racing each other has grown into one of the largest equine events in the Southwest — with a constantly evolving roster of events, more than 100 teams (135, this year) and thousands of spectators, many of whom spend the week camped out on the ranch, savoring what has become a nonstop party. Of course, many come strictly to watch the wild-and-wooly, thrill-a-minute races, which capture the best and worst aspects of the renegade Old West. (For the uninitiated, here are the chuckwagon race rules: Each team has three members — cook, driver and outrider. The cook loads the tent and gets in the wagon. When the start gun goes off, the outrider throws the stove in the wagon and gets on his/her horse. All three members must circle a barrel. The outrider must cross the finish line before the nose of the team. The tent, stove and both people must be in the wagon when it crosses the finish line.)
Shortly after this year's race, Roundup editor Lisa Broadwater spent an evening touring the ranch with Dan Eoff to find out more about this Arkansas tradition.

Horsemen's Roundup: When was your first chuckwagon race?
Dan Eoff: Seventeen years ago, after Peggy and I got married. Our group that we ride with, it was our time to have everybody over. Right before that, we had gone to Montana with our friends Dave and Janet, for a little vacation. We went to Cheyenne Frontier Days.
We got ready to leave and Dave said, "Man, let's don't leave. I want to see the chuckwagon races. I've never seen one."
So we came back home, and we all had wagons at this time. We had quit rodeoin' by then. So I said, ya'll come over Labor Day, and we'll race some chuckwagons and eat and drink some. Now, I'm not one to go to a party to just drink and talk about what we COULD do. I want to DO something. So I called all the guys in, and we had eight wagons. And I said, "I'll fix enough chicken for 50 people."
Word got around we was gonna have it. We had 200 people over here. And it was awful. All we did was come through those woods and came around this barn and make a big circle. There wasn't anything to it.

HR: Did you have a track?
DE: No, we'd just say, "Go by that tree and turn right." Then when we were finished, I hollered up the hill, where everybody was watching, "What do ya'll wanna see next up there?" And they said, "Have a straightaway!" So I lined em up and said, 'We're gonna have a straightaway!" And we just ran. It wasn't nothin'. But people thought it was great.
And then the people who couldn't get here because the road was stopped up thought they missed something. I think God just set this thing up for us. So I thought, "Boy, next year we'll promote this thing."
So we promoted it. We thought we'd have 2,000 people. I bet we didn't have 500. And two horses got killed. Oh, man.
I remember, one team turned over and got loose, ran into a truck and broke two legs. I paid for the horses. And everybody heard about it: "Man, that was awful. Man, when are you gonna have another one? We want to come see it." So I thought, well, we'll try one more.

HR: Is that part of the appeal — waiting for a train wreck?
DE: Yeah. They don't want to miss nothin'. So the next year we had 30 wagons — it doubled every year.

HR: It was just one day then?
DE: Yes, Saturday. Then it went to Sunday too. Then one year, we had this whole hillside cleaned up and we started the Snowy River Race.

HR: When was that?
DE: Hmmm, I don't remember. Ever since that bull throwed me, I haven't remembered good.

HR: What bull?
DE: I can't remember.
We thought we were gonna make some money that year and spent $15,000 gettin' that cleaned up. It started raining on Thursday. It rained the entire time. We only canceled one day. They had the road blocked up, and I went out there to the highway (it was all gravel then), and the road was washed away. But the county was in there bringing gravel. So I said, "Let's just cancel the races." And the city police came up and said, "Dan, we can't cancel. There's people backed up there that came from Searcy and all. They've come to watch."
I learnt right then that these people are comin' rain or shine. At a rodeo, when it rains or it looks like it's gonna rain, you lose your crowd. Here, if it rains, they're comin'.

HR: Is that the only year you got rained out?
DE: The only year we got rain. Oh, it rains just about every year — little thunder showers here and there. But everybody loves it. Nobody leaves, because they're dirty, it's dusty and here comes the rain.

HR: Do you have many people come who camp here?
DE: Thousands.

HR: How do you manage all those people?
DE: I don't know. Everybody manages to take care of themselves. I thought when this thing started it would fill the field up on top of the hill (where spectators sit). The spectators would come to watch; it would be like a car race — 10,000 in the stands and 500 in the bottoms [where the races take place]. But it's not. When they come to watch, the second year they come down here [to the bottoms]. They want to be down here with everybody. They want to have their horse and be right among them.

HR: So all those people I saw on horseback were just sitting on horseback all day watching the races?
DE: That's why they come.

HR: So they may not even ride anywhere?
DE: Well, our land goes up the river two miles. There's a trail ride every morning, or some just ride by themselves.

HR: When do people start showing up?
DE: The Saturday before the first race on Friday. We checked in 300 horses the week before the race and they stayed all week.

HR: So what do they do for that whole week?
DE: They ride. We rode to town one day and ate barbecue downtown and then rode back that night. They ride at night — you can't believe the people who ride at night. There'll be hundreds, maybe thousands, of horses riding at night
We have a lot of the activity the first week. On Monday we have a Pat Parelli clinic. Then we have barrel racing, team penning, we have a ranch rodeo for our campers, and there's no entry fee. If you pay to get in [the grounds], you can enter. That's why you have to wear your armband all the time.
We don't have an entry fee [for the chuckwagon races, either]. You know why? Because all during the time I rodeoed, most of the time I lost. When I went to Cheyenne, I gave them an entry fee, and I knew I wasn't gonna win. When I entered Fort Worth, I knew I couldn't beat them guys; I just wanted to be a part of it.
If you want to run for money, go to Canada. This is for fun. These are working people. If there's not gonna be a lot of money in it, like the Las Vegas rodeo, let's don't have any. These folks don't want to be out any money.

HR: What do you win if you win the Chuckwagon Race?
DE: We pay $10,000, $12,000 in Chuckwagon bucks [to the top six placers in each race each day], which you take up to the trade show to buy saddles, tack or pay your hotel or whatever with. But you have to spend it here in Clinton, with whoever is in our program. Eighty percent of it is spent right there at the trade show.

HR: During that week, do you have something going on every day?
DE: Yes. We have rides, clinics. Next year we'll start another day of it. Right now we're in the process of planning the activities for next year. We can only race chuckwagons three days because of our track. It wears it out, it gets too dusty and I don't have the means of watering it.

HR: At the camp, how do you keep track of who's coming and going?
DE: I don't.

HR: Doesn't it make you nervous, having that many people prowling around your property?
DE: In a way it does. But when you see the people who come, it doesn't.

HR: You don't ever get any troublemakers?
DE: We do, but I try to take care of them and run them off. We had to suspend some people this year. We do have a lot of drunks that we don't catch. As long as you're at your camp and don't bother anybody, fine. But if you get drunk and we have to get on you, don't come back. We want this thing to be a family deal.

HR: So what IS the appeal of being a chuckwagon racer?
DE: The danger.

HR: Is it the same kind of person who wants to drive a race car, go thousands of miles an hour and possibly die?
DE: Yeah. Well, this won't really kill you, but you can get hurt. It's the thrill of winning. And it's the thrill of the sound. If you've ever been in one — man, that ole sound — click, click, click; clang, clang, clang — it sounds like the motor's comin out of your car. And here comes another guy, and you see a horse go by. It gets your adrenalin going. And if you like horses....

HR: So you get to race too?
DE: Yeah, but I've never won. There at the first I tried to win. I couldn't win. Man, I tried. I've always lost at most of the things I've done. But all my friends have pretty much won.

HR: So who set up all the rules?
DE: Peggy and Dan Eoff made the rules. We got the rules from the Canadian chuckwagon association, and I wouldn't use them. There's a two-second penalty if you don't get on your horse fast enough. There's a second penalty if you don't get out on the track fast enough. "And the winner of the race is..." "Hmm. Let's figure it up here." See? You can't tell who won just because someone crosses the line first.

HR: So you wanted it simpler?
DE: Simpler. My mother used to go to football games. She didn't know the rules. She just knew that the football went across the line. Let's make it like that. The outrider has to load the stove past the wagon. We're not going to have any penalties; you're in or you're out. It's that simple.

HR: Here's what I don't get. There were a surprising amount of wagons that beat their outriders. Now, what's the point if they're disqualified?
DE: If you wait for him to catch up, you'll ruin your time. If I'm driving our team, I don't slow up. If you can't catch me, it's not my fault.

HR: I know, but you lose.
DE: I can't help it. I'm gonna lose anyway because my time is going to be slow.

HR: Which is worse: to have a slower time or not have your outrider?
DE: I think it's best to have the best time. If the outrider couldn't catch up, I'm gonna trade him in next year and we're gettin' a new outrider.

HR: But if you slowed down and the outrider caught up, you might still win and you aren't disqualified.
DE: Yeah, but your time's no good. You won't win.
When we first started, we had rubber tire wagons. I remember a woman one time said to me, "I came down here and thought I'd see real wagons." Well, I was the only one who had a real wagon because I couldn't win anyway, being the promoter.
The rubber tire wagons go faster. An outrider can't hardly catch a rubber tire wagon. You could ride Dash For Cash, one of the leading running Quarter horses there's ever been, but if you can't get on him, you can't catch the wagon. You've got to have a calm horse and get on. It's got to be a teamwork deal.
We studied that a lot and have had a lot of criticism: "Don't worry about the outriders." Well, let's worry about him because he's part of the team and he's important.

HR: Why have a mule race?
DE: That's a new race we put in this year. With 4,100 head of horses and mules, we feel like there's probably 1,000 mules, and we needed to have a mule event.

HR: What are the rules?
DE: Mount your mule and go around the track. Something we've learned: The more rules you have, the more problems you have. If you read our rules, there aren't many: The wagons have to weigh so much, the ponies have to be so big. There's no cheating — if we catch you cheating, we suspend you forever. Stay on the track. Now, if you run on the outside of the track, we still count that. If you go up through the crowd [in the bottoms] and come back and hit the road and turn your wagon over then turn it back over and keep a-goin' — if you can beat us doin' that, you need to win.

HR: What does it take to win a chuckwagon race?
DE: A lot of work with your horses. You need to really have your horses in shape. One of the things we did was try to not let the Thoroughbred horses overcome the Quarter horses. We didn't want all Thoroughbred horses to win this thing. We want you to use your old Quarter horse that you rope off of, the one you ride on the trails with.

HR: So you wanted it to stay cowboy?
DE: We wanted it to stay cowboy. So we've made a rule that you have to beat us by one full second.

HR: Have you had horses die during the races?
DE: Oh yeah. Once a year, we'll have one. We had two die this year. One horse broke both legs in a freak accident.
Sometimes on the track, they're running and they just break a leg. You can't help that. God can't help that. It just happens.

HR: But it is incredibly dangerous...
DE: No.

HR: Oh come on.
DE: Why would it be?

HR: Because, for one, you're going so fast.
DE: Yeah, but if you'll watch what you're doing and stay away from the other wagons, it's not. We have veterinarians and ambulances. Man, I make a living with horses, you know? I love 'em. So I'm not cruel to horses.

HR: I'm not saying you're cruel, just that it's a dangerous sport.
DE: Yeah, it is.

HR: So do you make a lot of money from the races?
DE: Not a tenth of what people think and not a tenth of what it looks like. If I got half of what people think...We were down at the feed store working and my wife was sweatin', and a guy says, "I heard you made a million dollars." And I said, "The first million we make we're gonna air-condition this feed store."
It all goes right back into the ranch. I told my wife once, "We probably won't have anything but a pretty ranch when it's all over." If we make $10,000 or $20,000, our bulldozing bill will be $10,000 and we'll clean up another place.

HR: What are your expenses?
DE: Oh man, thousands. I told my wife when we first had this, ‘We can put this thing on for nothin'.’ Well, two or three years ago, it cost $65,000. It probably cost close to $100,000 this year. We give $25,000 away in prizes. And we have about a $10,000 bill on dozing work, about an $8,000 bill in gravel and backhoe work. I paid a bill today for $3,000 for programs. I paid $5,000 for newsletters. The port-a-potty bill will be $14,000. It just adds up.

HR: Will there ever be a point when it's bigger than you want it to be?
DE: Probably this year is as big as we can handle it.

HR: How many spectators did you have?
DE: I don't know. We had 4,100 horses as opposed to 2,780 last year.

HR: What makes a good chuckwagon horse?
DE: One that will work. And when I'm talking about work, I mean (makes a clucking sound), he goes up. And "Whoa," he stops. Turns. John Yates has won the last three or four years. He can win because he can pull 'em up on the line, drop his reins, and they'll just stand there. Everybody else is jumpin' up every which way. He can say (clucks twice) and they can take off around that barrel and spin that wagon. They can swing that wagon.
A good team is controlled.

HR: Is the outrider just all about speed?
DE: Pretty well all about speed. And calmness. You need a good, calm Quarter horse.

HR: Do you ever consider not doing it anymore?
DE: We talk about it a lot. We've talked about quitting it at 20 years. But we can't.

HR: Why not?
DE: Well, how can you quit Cheyenne Frontier Days? People know it's the last weekend in July, and they're gonna come. People just come. We've got 4,000 on our mailing list. Out of that 4,000, we have probably 3,000 come. That's just a small percentage of the people who come.
I think we've got something started that will always be. Maybe after we die...