+JDH Ms. Water Manso 239 was born in 2002 at J.D. Hudgins, Inc., and raised by Adrian and Karen (Mangum) Gubert, who branded the XL shoulder brand. When the Mangum division decided to sell their cows, of course, Sloan was there waiting. He could never resist a group of cows for sale, so imagine his excitement when it was a group of JDH cows from right down the road! Sloan picked up Jim, Luke, and Catherine and drove them to the “Herding Ground” pasture at JDH to size up the group, but he’d already made up his mind, and he could barely contain his excitement. Sloan bought the entire group of about 75 females. Bubba Hudgins had allowed Adrian and Karen to breed their cows to (+)JDH Sir Liberty Manso; he had even advised them on which cows he thought would mate best with the bull. The deal was that Bubba would get to keep any bull calves, and the Guberts would get the heifers. There were three daughters of Liberty in the group, and Water was our top pick. She came to V8 as a five-year-old cow and her first flush to +Mr. V8 287/5, “Superstroke” resulted in +Miss V8 138/7, one of our top donors today. But it was the flushes to +Mr. V8 380/6 that produced quality in volume and cemented her place in the history books at V8.