Blog

Intent to Harm

June 12, 2025 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach never dreamed such a sinister thing could happen at a bird dog field trial. He was riding as the reporter, last-minute substitute for a no-show at the Deep South Open All-Age Championship. It was March, and the handlers entered were here in Southwest Georgia seeking end-of-season Purina Points toward All-Age Dog-of-the-Year and a slice of the $35 thousand purse to be divided 20-10-5 among Champion, Runner-Up Champion and Top Qualifier (the event was run with 40-minute qualifying heats and one-hour finals among as many call-backs as the judges felt worthy, usually about twelve, or two days of finals-running worth. Forty dogs were entered. Read more

Ben & Sam

June 7, 2025 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben and Sam were creatures of habit. Long habit.  Octogenarians now, they had been friends since childhood, volunteer professional colleagues in helping Sam’s patients and Ben’s clients the many decades they had practiced law and medicine in Albany serving rich and poor in the Quail Belt, a 50-mile stretch of fertile, gently rolling land between Albany and Tallahassee containing a hundred plus estates known for over a hundred years as Yankee Quail Plantations, rich-snowbird refuges from the winter temperatures, snow and ice of northern wealth pockets.  Read more

Pup in Spring

June 1, 2025 | Poetry | Comments
If your pup is whelped in January Or a little before but registered so Now is the time to turn him free To learn the world with you to see Read more

Last Brace – A Memorial Day Tribute

May 25, 2025 | Henry Caruso Jr., Jim Heckert, Remembrances | Comments
Once Upon A Time, at the storied field trial grounds at Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, daylight was running out. There were two more braces to run, but only time for one. No one wanted to stay another day. What to do? The four handlers with dogs in the last two braces: Dave Grubb, George Tracy, Henry Caruso, Jim Heckert. By agreement, all four dogs were run together in a last brace. Laughter flowed throughout from handlers, judges, gallery.  Read more

A Brace

May 21, 2025 | Poetry | Comments
Two hoary-headed handlers Ride to the break away Their mounts tired for ‘Twas their third brace of the day Their scouts lead their entries By a rein, the other rein leads their horses At the line the scouts’ left hands grab their dogs’ collars Right hands snap the rein to the ring on a bit shank Read more

A Memory of Bubba

May 14, 2025 | Bubba Moreland, Remembrances | Comments
With the shock of reading Bubba Moreland’s notification of death today on Facebook came a flood of memories of being with him and his mutual best friend Luke Weaver. For those who did not know them, Bubba handled Luke’s bird dogs in open competitions, and they were brothers in all ways but blood.  Read more

Getting There

April 23, 2025 | Short Stories | Comments
Billy Cord was traveling north to train with scarce the money for gas, much less inevitable emergencies. His tires were thin, his muffler loud from rust leaks, his two-ton stock bed truck’s engine burning oil, all sure signs breakdowns threatened. Still, with temperatures in the 90s at home in Georgia, he had no choice, or so he told himself. Read more

A Suggestion for Field Trial Clubs

April 20, 2025 | Announcement, Other Things | Comments
The field trial sport (please do not call it a “pastime”) is under stress like never before. First run in the US in 1874, trials have survived recessions, depressions, world wars, pandemics. But in these prosperous times they show the undeniable signs of stress and decline: shrinking entries, especially in the All-Age category, and retirement of pro trainer-handlers.   Read more