Ben Reach’s Secret Crusade

Ben had been waging a secret crusade for many years. The crusade was to light the field trial fire in a few who could afford to help the sport.

The crusade often seemed hopeless. Few who could afford to help had any interest in trials or trial dogs. Time and again Ben saw very wealthy buyers of quail plantations with no interest in field trials. They were only interested in shooting birds. And they were told trial dogs were worthless for hunting by other plantation owners with no experience with trial dogs.

Now Ben was not opposed to shooting birds. In fact, bird hunting had been his principal fall and winter entertainment since boyhood. But he loved trials too. And he understood trials were central to having good hunting dogs. And to understanding what truly great hunting dogs are.

Like most sales of great plantations, the sale of Wishdom Plantation occurred without prior publicity or rumor. Pete-Bob Dix simply showed up at Ben’s office on a Monday morning with the signed sales contract in hand, grinning like a possum. The purchaser whose signature was on the contract was Dale Daniel, inventor of a device Ben did not understand but that had made him a billionaire.

Wishdom had been in the loving hands of a Cleveland family since 1880. Ben and Sam had shot quail, dove and ducks on it many times. Fished its ponds for bream many times too. It held plentiful wild quail on hunting courses whose cover and topography could easily accommodate six continuous one-hour trial courses, affording equal opportunities and with paths for the dog truck to carry entries and gallerites unable to ride horseback. Its horse barn was attached to a meeting room and kitchen suitable for use as a lunchroom and drawing place and banquet room for the previous year’s winner’s owner to sponsor there a catered supper for all to celebrate his Champion.

Ben had tried for years to entice the Cleveland family to sponsor a pointing dog trial on Wishdom but to no avail. They were interested only in quail hunting and the owners trial of the Georgia-Florida Field Trial Club, held each President’s Day since 1916 except in war years, and known to locals as the Yankee Trial.

When Pete-Bob brought Ben the sales contract with the seller’s request that Ben represent him in the sale, Ben quizzed Pete-Bob about the new owner. Pete-Bob first told Ben that the seller would be taking his bird dogs, horses and staff to his new plantation, just inherited from a maiden aunt. Ben immediately sensed an opportunity to entice Wishdom’s new owner to sponsor a trial on Wishdom.

Pete-Bob confirmed that the buyer’s quail hunting experience was as a shooting guest at fancy places with bankers and others seeking his business or to sell him something. Pete-Bob was angling to get himself hired as the buyer’s agent to buy dogs and horses and mules to equip Wishdom and for a commission to find him a manager-dog man to run the operation.

Having evacuated Pete-Bob from numerous scrapes arising from his self-serving schemes, Ben decided to make Pete-Bob a co-conspirator in his scheme to interest the new owner in sponsoring a pointing dog trial. Ben already had in mind a course of action, and Pete-Bob endorsed it.

The closing of the Wishdom transaction was scheduled for the week before quail season’s opening day, so there was no opportunity to acquire a competent wagon string for the new owner in time for quail season’s opening. This gave Ben his opportunity. He and Pete-Bob divided the names of potential helpers, professional field trial handlers based in South Georgia and South Alabama, plus a few men Ben called semi-pros, amateur trialers as skilled as any pro in developing pointing dogs, who competed in top amateur trials locally and across the nation.

The pitch Ben and Pete-Bob made was this. Come to Wishdom Plantation on a specified date with your trial string. Bring a scout of your choosing or Pete-Bob will scout for you. Guide Dale Daniel’s hunting party for the day. Do not mention that your dogs are trial dogs. Retrievers and a hunt wagon will be provided. (Ben recruited these from retriever trialers who volunteered to double as wagon drivers and handlers of their dogs to gain their dogs experience, and Ben and Sam asked clients and friends with hunting wagons and mule or draft horse teams to donate their rigs and stock as welcoming gestures to Dale Daniel).

The invitations were over-subscribed. Trialers were thrilled to have the opportunity to hunt their dogs on Wishdom . And at season’s end Dale Daniel had enjoyed a great quail hunting season on Wishdom Plantation.

Ben invited Dale Daniel to join him and Sam Nixon MD on a Friday afternoon at Ben’s office to “hear a story and enjoy a dram of The Macallan.” He also invited Pete-Bob but did not tell Dale Daniel. The curmudgeons and Pete-Bob were waiting for Dale in Ben’s library-conference room when he arrived.

After all had been served, Ben asked, “What did you think of the dogs brought to hunt for you and your guests on Wishdom? “

“They were super, every one, and the retrievers too. My worry is, where do I find dogs of that quality to buy?”

“Would you be surprised to learn every pointing dog hunted for you was a field trial winner, and its handler a professional field trial handler or top amateur?” Ben said.

“Yes…. I thought trial dogs ranged too far to be hunted.”

“You noticed each dog wore an e-collar. It would not have worn one in a trial — just a GPS tracking collar. The dogs knew from that and maybe a bump or two from the e-collar they were to hunt at closer range than in a trial.” Ben said.

“How do I get dogs of that quality?” Dale Daniel asked.

Ben pounced.

“If you will sponsor a trial on Wishdom you will earn the loyal friendship of the field trial fraternity and they will offer you good dogs. And Pete-Bob here can help you acquire a string for next season and find a dog-man manager for Wishdom, ….but whatever you do, don’t hire Pete-Bob as manager.”

Pete-Bob cringed. He had already set his heart on managing Wishdom Plantation.