I love field trials
As all who know me know
And I worry for them now
As entries slow
As great trials cease
Or get reduced to shadows
Of what they were before
I worry and I pray the sport can stay
Why do I worry?
I am old and will be gone fore long
I worry cause the sport’s important to the dogs
Without it they’ll all be less and common soon
A field trial is a test
Competition head to head
To see what breedings yield the best
Without them its anybody’s guess
The ones that matter are all-age
From them only the genes that breed on spring
The shooting dogs and gun dogs depend
On their vigor not to shorten more and more till soon obscure
Field trials have been always for the few
Not for the masses or folks at large in general to view
But always there have been enough-the precious few
To back the weary pros that haul and train and handle them in trials
They did it through two world wars a great depression and the latest ‘08 crash
But now things seem worse than all before
So if you love a bird dog—all-age, horseback shooting or on foot hunting
Pray for all-age trials, the future for us who love bird dogs and for bird dogs all
1926, 1928, 1930 National Championship winner Feagin’s Mohawk Pal (William Harnden Foster)
above: 1941, 1943, 1945 National Championship winner Ariel (William Harnden Foster)