Sam Nixon MD had endured a troubling week. He felt the need to talk it out with his pal, Ben Reach, at their customary Friday afternoon meeting at Ben’s office to plan the weekend’s fishing.
“Ben, I have a problem, or one of my patient’s has: Al Scales has congestive heart failure.”
Ben knew Al well and for many years. Al was a for-the-public bird dog trainer-handler. His son Billy was his apprentice and scout. Congestive heart failure meant the end of a handler’s career.
The immediate question was, could Billy carry on alone with Al’s string? That question would be the curmudgeons’ topic of the day and the weekend.
The history of handlers’ sons carrying on with their father’s businesses, or professional practices as Ben thought of them, was rich: Ed Mack Farrior with Edward Farrior; John Rex Gates with John S. Gates; Collier Smith with Herman Smith; Andy Daughtery with Bud Daughtery; George Tracy with Gerald Tracy, and on to a third generation with Mike Tracy. All were Hall of Fame members except Mike and in good time he would be. But it was not easy. To make it happen, stars had to line up, or rather dog owner-sponsors and really good (exciting) dogs, and a son’s skill and work ethic.
Al had just won the Continental Derby Championship with Rambling Rusty for owner Carson Grimes, Billy scouting.
Grimes was also a patient of Sam’s and a client of Ben’s and Al’s most apparently dedicated and loyal dog owner-sponsor. Billy’s chances of successfully carrying on as a handler might well depend on winning for and keeping the loyalty of Carson Grimes. And that loyalty might hinge on Billy’s success with Rambling Rusty.
Could Rusty make it under Billy? Only time would tell, and according to Sam, Al’s remaining time on this earth was short.
By their natures, Ben and Sam were dedicated to helping young people succeed. And for Ben especially, that applied to bird dog people. That weekend the curmudgeons fished the pond at Mossy Swamp Plantation. Much of their conversation was about Al, Billy and Carson Grimes.
Saturday night, as Ben lay awake, unable to sleep, he had an epiphany about how to help Billy with Carson Grimes.
Carson loved to hunt upland game birds: quail in his native southwest Georgia where he owned a quail plantation and lived on it
December through March; ruffed grouse in Minnesota, visited two weeks each October; sharp-tails and pheasants in North Dakota right after his Minnesota trip.
Field trials were a relatively new thing for Carson. Truth was, Carson’s sporting activities put a strain on his budget. If Rambling Rusty made the transition from derby to all-age, Carson was going to need help financially campaigning him. That likely meant partnering with a co-owner, a perilous undertaking that often lead to broken friendships, but sometimes a necessary one.
None of Carson’s shooting pals were field trialers—yet. But Ben sensed Rambling Rusty was potentially one of those rare truly exciting dogs that could make a trialer out of a shooter, and Carson’s quail plantation , known as Persimmon Plantation since before 1900 but recently changed to Permission Place at the insistence of Carson’s wife Mildred (a plum Woke Vermonter).
Ben has two motives with Carson: Help Billy make it as a handler, get Carson to host field trials on Persimmon Place. Its topography and cover were ideal; Ben laid out six one-hour courses on it as he lay on his back in his bed.
* * * * *
Ben and Sam were commissioned by Al and Billy to tell Carson of Al’s diagnosis and retirement from handling. Also to ask him to stick with Billy as Rambling Rusty’s handler. Ben had one more motive: get Carson to sponsor an hour Open All-Age field trial stake on Persimmon Place that he could get approved as a National Championship Qualifier with the purpose of having Rambling Rusty win it. That with his win of the Continental Derby Championship would qualify him, perhaps in time for Al to witness it.
Ben Reach was a devious fellow when it came to promoting field trials. Never let a crisis go to waste was his unspoken motto. When he and Sam left Persimmon Place after visiting Carson he had agreed to stick with Billy with Rambling Rusty, and to sponsor the trial on Persimmon Place—if Ben could get it approved by the UKC and the National as a Qualifier.
Ben went to work with the UKC and the National Championship board, recently shuffled. He called in many chips he held for favors, some long past. In a week he had it done. The beauty of Persimmon Place had been a big help. Lying on the Georgia-Florida line, it would make an ideal fit to take the Florida Championship’s slot on the calendar.
To be continued….