Blog

What Field Trials Have Given Me

November 20, 2020 | Field Trials, Other Things | Comments

Folks like to talk about what someone has given to field trials, especially when Hall of Fame voting time rolls around. This is about what field trials have given to me. The short answer is, much happiness. Read more

One Who Gave For Us — And Paid A Price

November 13, 2020 | Other Things | Comments

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” President John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, January 20, 1961. Read more

Magic Memories From Field Trials

October 20, 2020 | Remembrances, Short Stories | Comments

I have stored in my kit bag of field trial memories some special (to me) ones that come back often deep in the night when after waking sleep will not return. Here are a few. Read more

Do Not Do That

October 13, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

This had come up before, many years ago, so Ben and Sam were not totally surprised. Herb Sheer had come to Doc first, and Doc had suggested he get Ben involved. Herb had long been a patient of Doc and a client of Ben. The problem had originated, not surprisingly, with a new charismatic preacher in town. In the curmudgeons’ long experience such seldom heralded peace for parishioners. Read more

When You Ride a Borrowed Horse

September 29, 2020 | Prose | Comments

When you ride a borrowed horse At a bird dog field trial You are thirty seconds away From a mishap Unless the horse beneath you Is that rare breed that protects you From your own ineptitude Read more

Hope for Quail in Virginia

September 22, 2020 | Bobwhite Quail, Other Things | Comments

As a dedicated quail hunter in Virginia from the 1960s through the 1990s, I have since been in mourning for the bird. Wild quail seem to have virtually disappeared from the Old Dominion. But there may be hope for the noble species, at least in the coastal plain, thanks to joint efforts of the Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Read more

Per Stirpes or Per Capita

September 18, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

It seemed to Ben that sibling strife dominated his law practice these days. He and Sam Nixon MD were mulling the causes as at 5pm each nursed his three fingers of The Macallan in Ben’s library-conference room. The subject of their mulling was the Tucker family, its members long patients of Sam and clients of Ben. Read more

Buck and Booty

September 8, 2020 | Fiction, Short Stories | Comments

Buck was handling and Booty scouting for Bootjack in the opening prairie championship of the season. The dog’s owner Fred Gray was riding in the gallery for his first prairie trial. He had bought Bootjack as his first trial dog in April and put him with Buck on recommendation from a friend. The grounds were new to all. Buck and Booty had studied them on Google Earth on Buck’s iPad, a recent gift from his son. Read more

About Families

August 25, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Ben and Sam found themselves in old age constantly contending with family strife in their practices of law and medicine. Time after time they watched families disintegrate into discord, indeed mutual hate. They often were on hand when a patriarch or matriarch died, only to witness strife break out among the children with unbelievable ferocity. “Why,” one or the other of the curmudgeons would ask the other after a family Read more

Dream Trip North

August 13, 2020 | Short Stories | Comments

It was his twenty third drive from Georgia to Manitoba, interrupted only by two summers in the army. He wondered if this would be his last. He made it in five days, sharing time behind the wheel with his scout Booty Blevins. Both were exhausted when they arrived. Neighbors came over and took charge of the dogs and the stock. Too tired to eat, he and Booty were quickly under blankets and asleep in the shack that served as their home for July and August. Read more