The Blue Hen ~ Part I

Harry Ganes got the bad news from his doctor as a total surprise. What he thought a minor scalp irritation was a melanoma, far advanced, result of too much unprotected sunshine, a common problem for those in his profession, pointing dog field trial trainer-handler. He now knew his days on earth were short, and he set to planning best he could for his wife Mary’s future without him.

He had but one asset of value, The Blue Hen. Her real name was Sweet Abigail. She was a pointer, daughter of the great sire Conquistador. Her only win had been the Continental Derby Championship, where in the closing minutes she tore her Achilles’ tendon. That relegated her to brood matron, but at that role she proved magnificent. Three years in a row she produced the Continental Derby Champion, the last derby championship run on wild birds. And every pup she produced became a trial winner, fully half in the all-age category.

Harry Ganes consulted Ben Reach on how to get for Sweet Abigail the most possible for his wife. Ben in turn consulted Sam Nixon MD. Together they decided the thing would be to create a bidding contest between at least two rich and competitive egos. Who would want to be known as owner of the nation’s best pointer brood matron, and be willing to pay for the privilege? Then the Curmudgeons thought of a way to increase the ego satisfaction of the contest for Abigail.

There would be a sealed bid auction. But to be eligible to bid for Abigail the bidder would be required to make a contribution to Tall Timbers equal to his or her bid for Abigail, the contribution to be earmarked for Dixie Plantation and the Fund for support of the Continental Championships run there. This might get the bidder admitted to the Georgia-Florida Field Trial Club, difficult these days.

For maximum impact the Curmudgeons decided to have the sealed bid opening at the ball held by the Georgia-FlorIda Field Trial Club on the Saturday before its Owner’s Trial, better known as the Yankee Trial, held each Presidents Day since 1916 except in war years. Because most club members were not interested in trials or trial dogs, the Curmudgeons let word get around through the members’ dog men that Sweet Abigail was also dam of many great wagon dogs, include two winners of the Owner’s (Yankee) Trial. How to spark a rivalry among bidders was the Curmudgeons’ challenge.

Harry had died New Years Day. But not before seeing to the breeding of Sweet Abigail to the reigning National Champion bird dog. So when she was led by Ben and Sam onto the band stand at the Ball she was amply and obviously in whelp. And all the bird dog men working on the plantations in the quail belt and that worked for the people attending the ball knew it and had talked about it since that momentous tie.

To this moment Ben and Sam did not know if there would be any bidder for Abigail. But when the master of ceremonies at the ball called for bidders to come forward there were an even dozen. Ben and Sam knew them all, clients or patients, adversaries in litigation or witnesses or victims or villains in the many odd goings on in the plantation culture, where old money and new, super rich and dirt poor, white, black, Latino, cracker, Yankee, redneck, millennial, gen-x and ancients (like Ben and Sam) interacted in mostly harmony but occasional mahem beneath long leaf pines, live oaks and cypress and amid rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, behind and aboard equines from Shetland ponies to mules, pulling and riding, Tennessee Walkers, Missouri Fox Trotters, the bird hunting mounts, to thoroughbred and warmblood hunter-jumpers for fox hunting to rackers and five-gaiters for the shows.

Who were the twelve? All owned shooting plantations between Albany and Tallahassee. Some had been in the family since around 1880, bought for $6 an acre from cotton farmers and turpentiners, bought with oil or coal or steel or railroad or banking money from Cleveland or Chicago, Boston or Philadelphia, New York or Milwaukee. Some had been bought in the last decade, with money from hedge funds, high tech, cable TV, venture capital or private equity or commercial real estate, and from all over the nation.

To be continued…