Fred Fox and Benny Carr had been partners thirty years. They had traveled the circuit each year, starting in Canada (later South Dakota), where they trained, in late August, then drifted south week by week. In December they’d begun the winter piney-woods season at the Georgia Open All-Age and Derby Championships, then worked the Florida, the Continental Derby and All-Age, sometimes the Free-For-All and National Derby til they ceased to run at Sedgefields (West). They’d go to Paducah at Thanksgiving if they had a dog invited, go to Grand Junction in February if they had a dog qualified, finish up at the Southeastern and Masters in March, fish and turkey hunt and then round up derbies and puppies to take north to train, leaving the first of July. Home was Lee County, Georgia, though they spent only December to June on the little farm Fred had inherited.
When in the 1980s most handlers having to save on expenses ceased to campaign with an employee-scout and opted to go to a “helpin’ each other” deal with another handler, Fred and Benny had stuck with the traditional way. The only thing not traditional and known only to them was they were full equal partners, not employer-employee. Fred was white, Benny Black. Fred was a good showman. Benny trained prospects from puppyhood, understood them, could break them without taking out their natural style, had eagle eyes for a dog and could anticipate their likely course on all the trial grounds where they worked. And he could pattern them on the prairie.
They were non-drinkers, non-dopers. Both were married, Fred to a nurse, Sally, who worked for Dr. Sam Nixon in Albany, Benny to a cosmetologist, Alma, who had her own shop in Leesburg. Fred had two sons, both grown with their own families and working in technology (Amazon and Google) in Atlanta. Benny had a grandson, Paul, age twenty and raised by Benny and Alma since their daughter had died at eighteen of a drug overdose when Paul was an infant. Paul was more like a son than a grandson to Benny and Alma and to Fred and Sally a godson. He had been going north with the partners for dog training since he was a toddler. He had just earned a two-year associates degree in business engineering from the community college in Albany. Alma had gone north too as camp cook and housekeeper, turning her beauty shop over to her number one employee for July and August.
Fred and Benny made a modest living and being frugal as were their wives, stayed in the business. There’s was a precarious business, always had been. But over the years they had by honesty and a strong work ethic managed to attract and keep enough good owners to avoid the fate of many in their craft, a dearth of owners paying training and entry fees to cover the nut of expenses for horses, feed, tires, fuel, motel rooms and payments on a dually and a trailer. Their trialing income had been supplemented modestly by fees for training gun dogs for plantations and foot hunters.
Fred and Benny were both sixty three. Their health had been good until recently when in the annual physicals Sally insisted they get from Sam Nixon MD, Fred had been diagnosed with expanding arthritis (no doubt growing from the many horse wrecks indigenous to his craft) and Benny with diabetes which so far he controlled by diet. “Boys, you ought to be making plans to retire soon,” Sam Nixon had told them after their most recent checkups (they always got them back to back on the same day just before heading north to the prairies).
Fred and Benny were in the dually headed north pulling the horse trailer, Fred behind the wheel, when Benny raised the transition plan they had been debating a year (Alma and Paul were following in Benny’s pickup. It held a full load of bird dogs bound for training). The plan was to take Paul with them on the circuit starting this fall, having him handle or scout some at each trial, then at season’s end announce that henceforth he would handle the string, trading scouting duties with other handlers in the now universal “helpin’ each other” system. Fred and Benny had lined up plantation hunt team part-time jobs starting when Paul would take over the string. They had discussed the plan with Sam Nixon and Ben Reach who, while having doubts, had not counseled against trying the plan.
Paul had been immersed in bird dogs and field trials since age eight, traveling to the prairies and helping Fred and Benny daily the months they were home. He had attended trials within a day’s travel of Leesburg, in recent years scouting occasionally for handlers needing help. He was well known and liked in the fraternity. Standing 6’ 2” and weighing 180 lbs., he was a natural athlete and graceful rider, having starred as a guard on his high school basketball team. He very much wanted to try the circuit with the string his grandfather and godfather now handled. Could he make a financial success of it was the question.
The summer went well, enough birds, decent weather mostly. When September arrived the three men began to execute the plan, attending first the two back-to-back trials at Columbus, North Dakota, placing a derby second in each of the two Derby stakes with Paul scouting.
Ben Reach and Sam Nixon MD had flown up to Columbus on a corporate jet as guests of one of the team’s owners. Sam examined Benny, then Fred. That night, the night before the second trial would end, he and Ben took the three campaigners to dinner in Cosby. There Sam released his bomb shell.
“Boys, I don’t think you should go down the circuit this year. Too risky for Fred and Benny. Age has caught up with you. Why don’t you let Paul take the string down the circuit. He can trade for scouting.”
Fred and Benny began to protest. Paul remained silent. Then Ben Reach spoke.
“Boys, I’ve got some good news you need to know. A big internet retailer wants to buy Fred’s farm for a warehouse site. They came to me because I am agent of record for Fred’s LLC that owns it. They will pay enough to assure Fred and Benny the retirements they have earned. But I need Fred to be home to negotiate the deal this fall.”
This was news out of the blue, and changed everything. Before the five went to bed, it had been agreed Paul alone would take the string down the circuit.
Next day their best dog would go down in the last brace of the All-Age stake. Fred had intended to handle but decided to let Paul. The dog belonged to the owner who had flown Sam and Ben up and he, Sam and Ben would ride to watch.
Their entry was a first year all-age male pointer named The Hand Off, named as a pup when the partners were first contemplating their deal with Paul. He scored three finds on sharptails and ran a big forward race. When time was up it was obvious he would be awarded first. When the winners were announced Fred and Benny together announced their retirement and that Paul would carry on alone with the string.
Next day Fred and Benny struck out for Georgia in Benny’s pickup carrying the gun dogs (Alma had flown home two weeks earlier). Paul left in the dually pulling the horse trailer loaded with five mounts and the string, six all-age and two derbies. His first stop would be in Ohio for pheasant trials, then he would swing west to Oklahoma, then Kansas, then to Hoffman, North Carolina. By the time he was returning to Lee County in October, Paul stood third in Purina all-age handler points and Hand Off fourth in open all-age points, qualifying him for the Invitational at Thanksgiving.
Paul had traded scouting duties with several different handlers through the fall. He had gained a reputation as a truly gifted scout with the eyes and instincts of his grandfather Benny. Dogs he scouted had won or placed frequently.
When Thanksgiving loomed, Paul asked Benny to go with him to the Invitational and scout both there and in the Kentucky Quail Classic.
The Hand Off did not make the finals in the Invitational but placed first in the Classic, qualifying him for the National Championship. Benny had found him pointing after time far at the front. Then in the Continental, Hand Off had placed Runner-Up with Benny scouting. Benny would also scout for Paul at the National.
Neither Paul nor Benny had much hope for Hand Off at the National. A first-year dog had not won it since Flatwood Hank for Robin Gates. But Hand Off proved a contender, scoring seven finds and being carried by the judges until the last day when his performance was overshadowed by a pointer bitch named Madonna.
While Paul and Benny were at the National, Ben closed the sale of Fred’s farm, assuring funds for a comfortable retirement for him and for Benny. Then another bombshell hit. Hand Off’s owner, Hiram Hess, announced he had bought Mule Shoe Plantation near Thomasville and he wanted Paul to manage it. He would also hire Fred and Benny part-time to manage hunts. There were cottages on Mule Shoe for them and Alma and Sally to live in. He would retire Hand Off to head his hunting string.
Fred and Benny expected Paul to be devastated. Quite the opposite. “This is wonderful,” Paul said. “I was contemplating quitting the circuit. Not the life for me. Motels, fast food, hauling horses on Interstates. I’m going to enroll part-time at Albany State, get a bachelor’s degree.”