The Bull Terrier Club Trophy Weekend Seminar
We are delighted to announce, Norma Smith (Magor Bull Terriers) will be running a seminar for The Bull Terrier Club at The Trophy Show weekend on Friday 17th February 2017. The seminar is entitled “The Bull Terrier In Motion” and is a must for all Bull Terrier enthusiasts. The seminar will start at about 1630 on the Friday afternoon but please look out for any updates nearer the time just in case the timing changes.
Norma & Gordon Smith have been involved in Bull Terriers for many years and are well known and highly regarded throughout the Bull Terrier world. We are thrilled and grateful to Norma for offering her time and expertise in running this interesting seminar focusing on movement in our breed.
We have included an interesting biographical summary highlighting Norma (and Gordon’s) background in our beloved breed.
As we expect this event to be very popular, can we ask that if you are interested in attending you indicate whether you would like to attend in order for us to plan on numbers please.
Thank you.
Norma Smith Magor Bull Terriers
My first Bull Terrier arrived in 1965 from Eva Weatherill (Souperlative). She was an Ormandy Ben of Highthorpe daughter and it was love at first sight. The acquisition of this bitch lit a fire for me and marked the beginning of this passionate journey that I still travel.
Gordon and I have been breeding/exhibiting Bull Terriers under the Magor prefix for 45 plus years. Our prefix is derived from both our first names “MA for the last two letters of mine and GOR for the first three letters of Gordon’s. We imported our foundation stock from Bill Morgan (Maerdy) in Wales. Bill lived in the Rhondda Valley in Maerdy and there was a small town not far from there named Magor so all round it was a perfect fit.
Before Gordon and I met and after acquiring my first bitch I was hungry for knowledge about this fascinating breed so left my job and I travelled to England and specifically to Ormandy/Souperlative kennels during the winter of 1966-67 to work and tutor under the watchful eye of the world’s leading Bull Terrier breeders of the time, Eva Weatherill and Raymond Oppenheimer. This adventure marked the beginning of a life-long friendship with both of them and one I will always treasure. There is no doubt that Raymond and Eva’s influence along with their generous capacity for sharing knowledge played a huge role in shaping the direction we took in terms of breeding and our entire philosophy on breeding Bull Terriers. The success we have enjoyed as breeders, exhibitors and judges today is largely due to being blessed with these two truly gifted mentors. During my internship at Ormandy I met Bill Morgan who at that time was working and managing the kennel for Eva. Bill and I became close friends as we worked side by side each day. I learned a great deal from Bill who was a gifted breeder and the most gentle of gentlemen. Bill allowed Gordon and I to start with the very best foundation stock by sending us Can/Am Ch Maerdy Moonstone (River Pirate) sire of the 1973 Silverwood Winner, Can/Am Ch Paupen’s Mr Wiggins, then later sent us Can/Am Ch Maerdy Magdalene (Audacity ex Bar Sinister daughter), dam of our 1976 Silverwood winner, Can/Am Ch Magor The Marquis, ROM. He later gifted us with a beautiful daughter of the great Ch Maerdy Maestro of Ormandy who in turn when bred to a Marquis son produced an important dog for us in Can/Am Ch Magor Midas Touch, ROM. There is no doubt that Bill played a huge part in our success as well in providing us with such outstanding foundation stock and sharing his vast knowledge.
Together we’ve produced countless champions of record in Canada and the U.S., multiple Group and BIS winners, as well as a goodly number of ROM (Recognition of Merit) titled dogs. We’ve won the prestigious Silverwood Trophy 6 times as well as the Lovell Trophy for Runner Up, the Radium Brigadier Trophy for Best of Opposite and multiple Best White Dog, Bitch and Best Colored Dog, Bitch.
We’re proud to say that all of our current dogs go directly back to those original imports and our first Silverwood Winner – Magor The Marquis. It’s been a long journey and one I can gratefully say that we are still on.
I’ve been judging Bull Terriers since 1978 with one of my first assignments at Birmingham Championship show where I awarded Charlsdon Commander the CC and Best of Breed. Over the years my assignments have taken me around the world; the United States to judge the Silverwood Trophy competition on 7 different occasions as well as multiple Specialty shows over the years, South Africa (twice), Australia and New Zealand (four times), Germany, Austria, France, Czech Republic and England where I have been honored to judge Championship shows, the Regent Trophy, the Bitch Jug and the Dog Jug. I enjoy the challenge judging offers and the opportunity it affords to continue learning.
I am proud and honored to be a recipient of the coveted Bar Sinister Award presented by the BTCA (Bull Terrier Club of America) to those individuals whose lifetime contributions to the breed have been significant.
I’ve also contributed articles for BARKS, The Record, multiple Club newsletters, served as Breedlines columnist for Dogs in Canada for several years and have presented Seminars on a variety of subjects about the breed.
I am a lifetime member of our local all breed club – Lakehead Kennel Club as well as the Canadian Kennel Club and most recently been honored with a lifetime membership to the Bull Terrier Club of America.
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