Minerva was a pointer, seven years old. She was handled by Arch Reams, age seventy-five, and the last of a breed of handlers of the old school, who rode the pace set by the judges and mostly in sight of them and let a dog hunt ahead and make its pattern, hopefully to the front. He was quiet, sang with a voice Minerva heard but did not shout or ride frantically to turn her or see where she coursed over a hill ahead.
His scout was his grandson, Theo Reams, age twenty-eight and mute but not deaf. Theo was “on the spectrum,” or autistic, but high functioning, save for his silence. He possessed an uncanny ability to find a dog lost to its handler, running or on point, perhaps because of the special way the mind of one on the spectrum works. This had been explained by the autistic genius Temple Grandin in Thinking in Pictures and other of her books on autism and animal science. She explained it as “Thinking in pictures.”
These events occurred at Sedgefields (West), during a running of the Open Free-For-All, when it was still a three-hour-stake with one-hour qualifying heats. The most brutal of stakes. Conceived and long sponsored by AGC Sage and first run in 1916, it glorified the true all-age dog, the one that runs away, but not quite. Minerva was this type. Her natural range was as big as the country available. She was often found on point by Theo, but seldom seen going on point.
On this occasion, Minerva was braced with Ali Babba, a pointer handled by Jake Weems of Georgia, age fifty-eight and scouted by his grandson Buck, age eighteen. There was no love lost between Arch and Jake. Why, no one knew, save perhaps their scouts.
This was the last call-back brace. The judges had called back eight dogs total and reserved the right to call back more if these did not produce a performance worthy of the title, in their view.
The judges had called the three hours over with both dogs hunting out of sight. Minerva and Ali had each scored six clean finds and run to the limits. Minerva had been found on point by Theo on each of her finds, Ali found on point by Buck on three of his.
Just before calling time, the judges had huddled and decided they would not announce a time during which handlers and scouts could search for their dogs after the call of time. This told the gallery this brace held the judges’ pick for Champion. It could be either dog, most gallery riders believed.
Ali was currently top dog in the Purina Top All-Age Dog points standings. Minerva had one placement for the season, a Championship, but had not been entered but in two stakes before this one.
After the call of time the judges rode to a high point on the course where the head marshal, manager of Sedgefield, advised they could best hear a call of point (or three toots on a special whistle if, the caller was Theo).
Time began to tick away, a half hour, forty-five minutes, an hour. The gallery riders feared the judges would momentarily call time up. Then, when an hour and five minutes had expired, three tweets from Theo’s whistle were heard in the distance, followed closely by a call of “point, point” by Buck. The chief marshal spurred his mount to a canter, followed closely by the three judges, followed by the gallery, held in check by other marshals.
When the chief marshal and judges arrived at the scouts, they saw Ali on point and Minerva backing thirty feet behind him. The senior judge signaled to Buck to flush, which he quickly accomplished successfully, Ali and Minerva remaining unmoving.
Soon the handlers Jake and Arch rode in from their searches elsewhere. Theo rode quickly to Arch and handed him something, and told him something in sign language. When Theo had finished, Arch called out to the judges who were huddled nearby, dismounted and watched over by two marshals.
Arch dismounted and walked to the senior judge and asked to speak with him “privately”. They stepped away thirty feet and turned their backs to the gathered.
Arch was playing for the judge a video from Theo’s smart phone. After three minutes, the judge called his fellow judges to join him and asked Theo to replay the video. It pictured Minerva on point, followed by Ali approaching her from the rear and walking past her, with the voice of Buck speaking to Ali and urging him forward.
The three judges walked away to huddle out of earshot of the gathering of riders, now all dismounted and holding reins. In three minutes the judges walked back and the senior judge announced,
“The Champion is Minerva”.