Billy Hanes had been a framing carpenter until rising interest rates choked the house building business around his native west Kentucky and he withdrew his savings, bought a four-year-old dually and a wel-used gooseneck livestock trailer he adapted to haul horses and dogs and lit out for North Dakota in June, hoping to find a place to train. He lucked on to that in a week of driving around and asking wherever he saw a roadside mailbox in likely looking territory. He had with him four green horses he’d picked up at a sale barn and a dozen dogs, half pups, half coming derbies, all pointers. Half were his, half belonged to folks who knew him through amateur trials where he’d competed since high school, thanks to a favorite uncle who had been a lifelong bird dog trial man. He had no wife, child or serious girlfriend and figured this was his time. He was twenty-five.
The landowner who let him train on his acreage had a fifteen-year-old son named Jed and Billy’s deal required him to hire the lad as a helper. That worked out well for the lad loved dogs and horses, had inherited a Norwegian work ethic and was a natural athlete who participated in high school rodeo.
The first two weeks they devoted to yard work and roading (game laws forbade turning dogs loose before July 15) and starting the horses which were green as could be. Fortunately, the farmer had a round pen Billy and Jed could use. The roading told Billy there were plentiful young pheasants on the land and a few young sharp-tails and even a fewer Huns.
About half the acreage was crops (wheat, canola, corn) the other half prairie pasture not heavily grazed. It was in all two sections and enough.
On July 15 Billy and Jed turned loose the string one at a time and rode behind on the nervous green horses. In a week they loosed them in braces. Soon they thought they knew what they had, mostly potential gun dogs, a few with short noses, one potential trial dog they named Piper because when he smelled birds or a bird he stood and “smoked his pipe” on the scent. He was a coming derby Billy had got as a weanling in exchange for a country broke foot hunting meat dog, the most sought after commodity in the bird dog world.
As the days and weeks passed their early judgment on the dozen dogs was mostly confirmed and the only dog with field trial potential continued to be Piper. Billy figured he could sell the rest of those he owned as gun dogs or plantation wagon dogs. Only Piper kept him interested in entering a trial. The trip north for the summer would not break even, Billy was sure. He turned his thoughts to cutting his losses. Still, he was intrigued by the derby Piper, which he believed had real potential.
Should he try to sell Piper to another pro handler now, before the early fall trials commenced? Or should he try to put an open placement on him on the prairie and sell him for more? He would do neither, for when he entered him in the derby stakes of the North Dakota trials run at Columbus he won them both. Billy decided to try to win a derby championship with Piper. He needed to figure a way to do that and stay close to solvent. It would not be easy.
He decided on the fall trials he would attend, entering Piper in the derby stakes, offering his services as scout, sleeping in a tent on the trial grounds or nearby. He caught a break when a “help each other” partnership deal between two pros broke up at the North Dakota (Columbus) trials and Billy made a deal with one partner to scout for him down the circuit. His pay would be just a 15% share of purses won by the other pro’s entries, plus whatever scout-share deals he might make at the same trials with other handlers along the way. He would enter only Piper in the derby stakes and maybe in the all-ages if the entry fee were not too high or the entry too strong. This gamble paid off as Piper placed in three all-age stakes as well as earning a first, second or third in each of the derby stakes entered.
When Christmas loomed, Billy had returned all the dogs he had taken north for others and sold all his own pups and derbies except Piper, which now slept beside him in his tent and rode beside him in the dually cab. Thanksgiving weekend he entered Piper in the Kentucky Quail Classic derby stake and the Classic all-age, winning the derby and earning third in the Classic. The pro he was scouting for had a dog in the Invitational which he scouted. It was called back on Monday but did not place. He vowed to return with Piper to the Invitational.
He had long since decided to enter Piper in the Continental Derby Championship. The pro he was scouting for was going to the Florida and his deal required Billy to go there too to scout.
“You won’t regret it, you can work Piper on Loncalla when you are not scouting and that’s the perfect place to get Piper right on sandy soil for Dixie,” the pro he was scouting for said.
Billy’s partner won runner-up and top qualifier at the Florida, and the dog’s owner gave Billy a $500 bonus for scouting. Billy had found his dog pointed twice in places most would have missed it. But best of all, Billy got to work Piper every day on Loncalla and the area reserved for visiting handlers to work their dogs was loaded with wild birds and Piper loved it. The Florida finished on Friday and Billy moved on to Dixie Plantation, the name of which had just been changed to Livingston Place.
Billy’s last resource besides Piper were the four green horses he’d taken to North Dakota in July. They were now well broken dog horses, the market price for which had recently jumped. Billy figured the Continental trials would be the ideal place to sell two of them to give himself enough cash to get home to Kentucky. He also needed to buy new trailer tires before making the drive.
Billy put up his tent inside the paddock he secured at Livingston Place for his four horses. He was pondering how to price them when the handler Billy was scouting for suggested he offer them to the owner of two dogs in his string, one being the dog that had just won Runner-Up at the Florida. Billy did, saying, “Mr. Kent, I want to give you first refusal on two dog horses I am going to sell this week. I took them green to North Dakota in July and have been riding them regularly since. You are welcome to ride them here to see if you like them.” Robert Kent thanked Billy and said he would take advantage of Billy’s offer.
Piper drew the last brace in the Derby Championship. Billy, who had never been to Livingston Place before, rode every brace before Piper’s and knew what Piper would have to do to win. A big ground race and three finds he figured. He was shaking when he climbed in the saddle. Robert Kent, riding one of his “for sale” horses had offered to ride front for him, and Billy had accepted with heart felt thanks.
Piper’s race was spectacular from the breakaway. He scored three well-spaced finds, was lofty and staunch on each, and finished fading out of sight at the front a quarter mile ahead of Billy. No one riding was surprised when he was named Derby Champion. Billy asked Robert Kent and Piper ‘s scout (Robert Kent’s handler) to pose with Piper and him as a threesome for photos in front of the famous Livingston manor house designed by John Russell Pope who also designed the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington D. C.
The Continental Open All-Age Championship began right after lunch. Robert Kent had two entries, to be handled by the handler Billy was scouting for. One would run early in the fifty dog entry, one in the third from the last brace. Robert Kent would ride just the braces of his entries. Billy had six entries to scout for Kent’s handler, and three others for other handlers who had asked him to scout for them. He would need all four of his dog horses to handle the scouting he was signed up for over the coming days.
Billy had not been in the piney woods country before and fell in love with it while riding the week before at Chinquapin Farm and here at Livingston Place. He had one day during the All-Age Championship with no scouting scheduled. The day before Robert Kent said, “Billy, why don’t you come up to my place tomorrow for lunch. Don’t mention to (Robert’s handler) where you are going.” Flattered, Billy accepted and punched the address near Thomasville into his cell phone.
When Billy arrived at the entrance to Cypress Swamp Plantation at 11 am next morning he could not believe its beauty. Giant ancient live oaks lined and overshaded the lane of the entrance a mile to a manor house built in 1880 by a Robber Baron of the Gilded Age. Robert Kent met him at the top of the entrance steps and led him to a room overlooking through floor-to-ceiling windows the namesake swamp where a table set for two waited.
Billy was overwhelmed by his surroundings. He had grown up on a small Kentucky farm in a three bedroom house. His mother taught school, his father worked as a mason in addition to operating the farm where he had once grown tobacco but now grazed a few steers.
Robert Kent had his butler bring them beers, poured in tall glasses, then serve them shrimp creole over rice which Billy found spicy but delicious. All the while, Billy wondered why Robert Kent had invited him here. While desert was being served, Robert Kent told him.
“Billy, I want to offer you the job of dog trainer and hunt manager here. You will train in North Dakota in August and September. We hunt three days a week, Friday and half-day Saturday and Tuesday and half-day Wednesday. Usually a hunt party will be six guns, horseback or on the shooting wagon, thirty-bird wagon limit (we are all wild birds here). Safety and hospitality are our watchwords. I will buy your horses and Piper from you but he will still be your dog, you can run him in piney woods trials and one prairie trial each year and put him on the shooting wagon when you choose. You can keep him in your house which I will show you after lunch.” No mention of pay was made.
Billy could not believe his ears. He had called several Kentucky boys working on shooting plantations nearby and asked about Robert Kent. To a man, they had said, he was a total gentleman and good to work for.
So Billy said, “ I accept your offer, Mr. Kent.”
Wonderful story. I wanted it to continue.