Using his trusty longbow and arrows he makes himself, Tred Barta bagged this bear recently in Oregon. Now hunting and fishing from a wheelchair, Barta's TV show, "The Best and Worst of Tred Barta," has just been picked up for its eighth season. Pic: Vail Daily

EAGLE COUNTY, CO --(Ammoland.com)- It took a year, but Tred Barta finally got his bear. More important, he can put on his socks.

Barta, 58, was scheduled to leave for Alaska last spring to tape another episode of “The Best and Worst of Tred Barta,” his popular hunting/fishing/adventure show on the Versus cable channel, when he started losing the power in one leg. Hours later he was in a Denver hospital.

After months of tests, he finally learned about two rare conditions that nearly killed him: a “spinal stroke,” and Waldenstrom’s disease, a form of blood cancer.

Usually upbeat, brash, and utterly unconcerned with what just about anyone thinks of him, Barta acknowledges he hit a point last summer when he wanted to end it all…

Read The Whole Story:

Tred Barta & Family Update

Barta Boys & Girls Club

Coastal Carolina - -(AmmoLand.com)- Tred Barta suffered a rare spinal stroke and while he fought for the next day, the tournament went on without him.

Recently I had the chance to speak with Tred and to obtain an update on his progress and how his health condition has affected his life. As one can imagine, Tred was eager to speak about his life now and where he is going in the future. However, he was most eager to speak about how this tournament is important to the kids and to the community and also for his emotional healing.

In Tred’s words:

“I sell airplanes every day from 6 am until 3 pm. I work out with a bungee cord and elastic bans tied around a post for one hour, each day. I shoot my bow each day and I am able to draw back to 50lbs now on the bow. I can drive my ATV and used truck with special controls and I am driving all over the state.

So far, I have ridden my horse, Badger, four times. Inside the barn I have a special harness system that lifts me to the horse and on the horse there is a high back seat that I can be strapped to when I ride. He is a specially trained horse and he is easily bridled.

My attitude is go, go, go and I feel as good as I have ever felt. I believe in my faith and I believe my faith carried me through very dark days in the hospital. And, I believe that God gave me a second chance to inspire people, I truly believe I am here to inspire and to motivate others.

On the day after Thanksgiving my wife and I are traveling to Guatemala to fish for billfish and to hunt blue wing teal. I am going to fish from the wheel chair and hopefully Annie will catch her first blue marlin and I want to release one on 2-lb test.

As for my paralysis I am healing very slowly. I receive electrical shocks in my legs to stimulate nerve growth. And while I am supposedly paralyzed from the waist down, I can pull back my bow and everyone says that I should not be able to and yet I can. My latest MRI shows that the infarction is healing slowly. And, actually, when I return form Guatemala, I am going to the Mayo Clinic for testing as they feel there is a drug available there that can help me.

I am working out everyday and there are days that I am frustrated and I have down moments. And, I want everyone to know that this tournament means more to me than any outdoor activity and I believe in what it stands for.

My whole life was changed and I am changed because of it. Yet, despite what I have been through I remain focused to this tournament and focused to getting back to being able to do the things I did before I was sick.

For me, nothing is more important now than helping this tournament grow and to raise money for the kids at the Boys & Girls Club.”

You can read more on www.bartabillfish.com

AmmoLand.com

Manasquan, NJ --(AmmoLand.com)- Here is a nice update by Great American Outdoor Trail’s Radio Magazine on our friend and hero Tred Barta.

If you did not know Tred has a Spinal Stroke in the beginning of 2009 that has left him paralyzed from the waist down. It is great to hear his voice and to hear that he is pushing through this tragedy “the hard way..the Barta way”

Tred is famous for his outdoors television show The Best & Worst of Tred Barta on Versus Channel. Tred has worked hard in the past to raise $1,800,000 for children’s charities. Now one good turn deserves another.

Needles to say Tred has been out of work and has run up some staggering medical bills. Knowing Tred it must be very difficult to take any kind of charity but the man deserves our support.  If you feel you would like to help Tred, his wife and kids out and pay down some of these bills his family has set up a fund for just that purpose.

Send what you can to:

Keep your spirits up Ted we miss you and hope to see you back on screen as soon as possible. – AmmoLand

Video Credit:
Great American Outdoor Trails Radio Magazine: For more information about the Great American Outdoor Trails Radio Magazine, the Outdoor Trails Network at www.outdoortrailsnetwork.com
or contact Jim Ferguson at 785-846-7844 or email him at radio@outdoortrailsnetwork.com

NWS Tred Barta 1 DT 9-23-09 Dominique Taylor/dtaylor@vaiildaily.com Tred Barta demonstrates some of his daily workout routine that will help him maintain his upper body strength Wednesday at his home in Eagle, Colorado

Vail Daily

Salt Creek, CO --(AmmoLand.com Firearms News)-Tred Barta is in his living room, watching an episode of his TV show, “The Best and Worst of Tred Barta.” It’s the last one he taped before a pair of rare medical conditions put him a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

There’s Barta, in blue pajamas, on the business end of a fly rod. He’s running around a Guatemalan resort trying to mimic how a sailfish might behave. Finally, he jumps in the pool, splashing, bobbing, filled with the glee of the moment.

Originally diagnosed with a a rare spinal stroke, Barta is actually suffering from an equally obscure condition known as Waldenstrom’s Disease, a cancer-like illness that thickens the blood.

The damage from the disease cost Barta the use of his legs, but it remains to be seen how much this will slow him down — he has been steadily practicing archery from the wheel chair to which he is now confined.

Versus has renewed his show for next year, and all of his sponsors are still with him.

“My goal now is to encourage others,” Barta said. “I want to inspire people, to be a role model.”

“Life is good, life is happy,” Tred says. “What a privilege to be here.

“You can change a life, you can change the world,” he added. “That’s what I want the rest of my life to be about.”

Read More at Vaildaily.com

Hat Tip: HuntWest

Eagle's Tred Barta took his first shots with a bow at Craig Hospital in Denver last week. Barta's torso is being held steady by a pair of straps the folks at Craig designed for him. By the way, Barta was hitting bulls-eyes at about five yards after not shooting for a month, and never shooting from a wheelchair. Scott Miller/Vail Daily

DENVER — Tred Barta is just learning to use a wheelchair. But he’s still pretty good with a long bow, and looking forward to his first horseback ride since a spinal stroke last month cost him the use of his legs.

After a stay at Denver Health Medical Center, Barta’s now working — and working hard — at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver. The product of that work could keep him on TV. More important, he expects the work he’s doing now to let him hunt, fish and explore the backcountry again…..

read complete article here..

Shooting Media Personality Tred Barta

NEW YORK – -(Business Wire)- The highly rated television series “The Best & Worst of Tred Barta” has taken a tragic turn as its host Tred Barta was struck last week by a spinal cord stroke just before completing filming of the final episode of the series. The final episode, which will be aired on the Versus Network later this year, will be an up-front and personal account of Barta’s fight to regain the use of his lower extremities that were left paralyzed from the stroke and how this will now relate to his ability and desire to continue to participate in wilderness and high seas adventures.

Barta, the icon of sports fishing and hunting, suffered the spinal cord stroke in mid-May and is currently under the care of doctors at Denver Health Medical Center in Denver, Colorado.

“I’ve fought to earn world records for some of the most challenging fish in the ocean and have hunted dangerous game in the wilderness with only my long bow, but nothing compares to the fight I am in now,” said Barta.

Spinal cord stroke is among the rarest forms of strokes – 1.2% of all strokes. The overall annual incidence of spinal cord strokes is estimated to be only 12 strokes in 100,000 people.

“Mr. Barta has suffered a spinal cord stroke which is a very uncommon condition. However, he has applied his uniquely vigorous and positive attitude in responding to his illness,” said Michael Earnest, M.D., neurologist, Denver Health. “Tred continues to do things the ‘Barta Way’ working hard and assisting in his daily recovery process. We look forward to his continued progress as he moves to the next level of care. He has earned the respect and admiration of all of us who are caring for him.”

Barta is a multiple world record holder in both sport fishing and hunting and hunts almost exclusively with a long-bow and home-made wooden arrows and fishes for marlin and tuna using only the lightest tackle. Fair chase and fair game are the hallmarks of his outdoor ethic. His Barta Blue Marlin Charity Tournaments, now held in Beaufort, North Carolina, are famous for its catch and release-honor system scoring format and have raised more than one million dollars for children’s causes.

“Tred has never done anything the easy way,” says Dean Travis Clarke, Barta’s editor of 20 years and fellow Versus Network TV host. “When he focuses on a goal, get out of the way or he’ll roll right over you! I believe with all my heart that Tred will approach walking again with that same drive and motivation.”

Barta, who is also a prolific author, writes for Sportfishing Magazine and Big Game Fishing Journal and is largely credited for his role in pioneering offshore “Canyon” fishing and how to fish, a North East Gulf Stream phenomena called warm core eddy formations.

Information about Tred Barta and his medical progress can be found at www.sportfishermen.com

SHOT Show - -(OutdoorWire.com)- This year the SHOT Show will be even more exciting as Jim Solomon, Host/Owner of the Xplor the Outdoors radio show brings you “The SHOT Heard Round the World”, as his radio show will be broadcasting the show live from the ACR Electronics, Inc. Booth 4793 on the SHOT Show floor.

ACR Electronics, www.ACRElectronics.com specializing in “The Science of Survival”, has offered to host the show as one of the major radio show sponsors.

Just to make it more exciting Jim is pleased to announce that he will be joined by outdoor/ hunting legends Tred Barta and Bob Foulkrod as his co-hosts along with ACR Marketing Director Paul Hardin during the live broadcast of Xplor the Outdoors, from the SHOT Show floor Sunday, January 18th from 9am to 12pm EST. These two have written the book on outdoor adventure.

That being said, I could not think of a better show title than “The SHOT Heard Round the World”, Solomon chuckled as his show, Xplor the Outdoors, is streamed LIVE around the world and archived on www.xplortheoutdoors.com

In the past, Solomon has been joined at SHOT by such outdoor celebrities and co-hosts as the wild and crazy Cindy Garrison, the lady that Solomon refers to as his only President, Past NRA President Sandy Froman, and the man who taught us all how to call elk with a turkey call, legendary outdoorsman Wayne Carlton as well as many other distinguished guests.

2009 will be no different as Solomon brings you the best in progressive outdoor radio programming LIVE from SHOT since 2002. The addition of Tred Barta and Bob Foulkrod to the list of outstanding co-hosts will make for exciting listening to everyone not only around the world but also by all the exhibitors at SHOT through the Internet.

The guest list for 2009 will include: Otis Gun, The Dallas Safari Club, Gamo USA, BSA Optics and Century Arms, as the list continues to grow.

About:
“Xplor the Outdoors”, which is short for “Xplor the Outdoors with Jim and Patti Solomon”, has brought you such progressive monthly outdoor, one of a kind, radio shows as “The Poacher Chronicles” which includes 37 state Wildlife Law Enforcement Agencies and 8 Canadian Provinces, “Xplor the Outdoorz Kidz”, the only radio program that’s just about kidz in the outdoorz ages 5-16 and “Go Take a Hike” for the beginning and veteran outdoor enthusiast, can be heard every Sunday morning from 7-9 MST on AM 1060 The Fan and streamed LIVE around the world and archived on www.xplortheoutdoors.com and www.myoutdoortv.com.

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www.VERSUSCountry.com

New York, New York – (Theoutdoorwire) – On Thursday, November 13, VERSUS Country presents encore episodes of The Best and Worst of Tred Barta, Winchester Whitetail Revolution and The Bucks of Tecomate with Jeff Foxworthy. Viewers can access videos, articles, television schedules, VERSUS on Demand content and much more online at www.VERSUSCountry.com.

The programming schedule for Thursday, November 13, follows (subject to change):

6:00 p.m. ET The Best and Worst of Tred Barta-Encore Episode
Tred is on the ground with his trademark long bow as he goes rabbit hunting in New Mexico in this episode of The Best and Worst of Tred Barta. This hunt promises to be the hardest on record as these small trophies prove to be more of a challenge than bigger game.

6:30 p.m. ET The Best and Worst of Tred Barta-Encore Episode
Tred travels to Katula, Texas attempting to take a wild hog with a knife in this episode of The Best and Worst of Tred Barta..

7:00 p.m. ET Winchester Whitetail Revolution- Encore Episode
In this episode of Winchester Whitetail Revolution, Mark Kayser heads to the Warne Ranch in Pierre, South Dakota with his long-time friend Cody Warne for a chance to bag a big whitetail.

7:30 p.m. ET The Bucks of Tecomate with Jeff Foxworthy- Encore Episode
Hard-scouting and sound-hunting pay off as Tecomate’s Blaine Burley takes a bruiser of an Illinois buck. Then, it’s back to
Texas as host David Morris grants a young hunter’s dream at his El Cazador Ranch.

About:
VERSUS celebrates real competition across all platforms (VERSUS.com, VERSUS on Demand and VERSUS HD). Now in more than 73 million homes, the network is the national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as best-in-class events such as The Tour de France, Davis Cup Tennis, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC), the Indy Racing League and Professional Boxing. The network also offers collegiate sports featuring nationally-ranked teams from top conferences such as the Pac-10, Big 12, Mountain West and Ivy League. VERSUS features the best field sports programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events and original programs, such as TapouT and Sports Soup, that audiences can’t find elsewhere. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.

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