Blog

Reflections on The American Field

September 6, 2021 | Remembrances, The American Field | Comments
I was an avid reader (or scanner) of the Field for all its print-format years from about 1965 onward. I published a piece in its Holiday (Christmas) issue every year from 1973 onward. After I started reporting trials in 1995 I published several reports each year, including of the Florida Championship every year, the Invitational at Paducah ten years, the Continental and Free-For-All several years, and the Lee County (a personal favorite) many years, all filled with fun for me. Read more

The American Field (1874-2021)

September 5, 2021 | Other Things, The American Field | Comments
The American Field Publishing Company is no more, as an independent entity. On September 1 it and its Field Dog Stud Book were acquired by the United Kennel Club, an international for-profit registry for Coon Hounds, Beagles and other working (or sporting) breeds, including curs and feists. It could have been worse. Its website announcement says it intends to continue and honor the Field’s pointing dog trial traditions. Let us hope it can and will do so. Read more

Advice on a Dog Sale Deal

August 30, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach religiously followed a policy, preached to him by his father, not to get involved in law suits involving dogs. But ironically, he was asked for advice on bird dog matters constantly. This was because Ben had many friends in the bird dog world and was trusted. He had judged trials over many years and never shown favoritism. Nor did he ever decline to try to help a bird dog professional trainer-handler in distress, and there was never a shortage of them. The profession was by its nature highly risky. Read more

My Father, the Farm, our Draft Mares and the Tractor

August 22, 2021 | Non-fiction, Remembrances | Comments
My father died of car crash injuries when I was fifteen in 1954. Now I am eighty-three. Despite our few shared years, he remains the person most influential in my life. I think of him often, and with gratitude, and wonder at how he inspired me. My father, born in 1897, lived through repeating hard times. Born and reared the son of a livestock dealer-farmer who conducted business largely on horseback through my father’s youth when he apprenticed, my father was drafted for Army service in World War One and completed Officer Candidate School at Camp Zackary Taylor in Kentucky just in time for the Armistice. Read more

A Job Earned

August 5, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach had always loved the prairie trials. When younger he had judged one most years. He was going to one this year as a gallery guest of Fred Dane, owner of Old Grove Plantation below Thomasville. They would fly in Dane’s private jet to an airstrip near Columbus, North Dakota, owned by an energy exploration company that one of Dane’s private investment partnerships controlled. Read more

A New Position for Willie

July 30, 2021 | Short Stories | Comments
Willie Goode enjoyed a special status on Tinkling Creek Plantation. His present position, at age seventy-five, was as scout for the dog handler on quail hunts. In his youth he had scouted for the Plantation’s field trial handler when the Plantation’s then owner, Creedmore Burns, sponsored a string on the all-age circuit. That had been a glorious time, right after World War Two, when Burns was among the Nation’s, indeed the world’s, wealthiest men, made so by his companies’ contributions to the war effort. Read more

What’s Fair

July 21, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Molly Bain was one of Ben’s favorite people. Widow of Sam Bain, also a favorite, Molly had soldiered on after Sam’s death twenty years ago. Molly had three daughters and eight grandchildren and doted on and worried about them all constantly. She professed no favorites and Ben knew she was sincere in saying it. They were certainly not equal in how they treated Molly. But Molly and Ben knew that was the universal fate of parents and grandparents. Read more

That Time Again

July 15, 2021 | Prose | Comments
It’s that time again South’s hot and muggy The prairie beckons Bird dog men Time to load the pups and derbies For school in big country Up north where there’s wild birds Sharp tails and pheasants and occasional Huns and no trees Read more