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The End of the Trial

January 5, 2018 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
It was a situation Ben had encountered often in his long career as a field trial judge, but its ending would be truly memorable. Time had expired with both dogs out of sight at the front. Handlers and scouts rode in search, hoping to find their dog pointed. Success could mean victory, for the brace, the last of the Championship, had also been the best. Each dog had scored two Read more

The Finalist ~ conclusion

January 1, 2018 | Short Stories | Comments
The runoff brace began after lunch. Three hundred were riding. Soon it was apparent conditions were ideal, the dogs closely matched, and the derbies were in a duel. First Bud, then Melissa, scored on the limb. At thirty minutes down each had scored three finds, not a bobble. Then a twenty minute dry spell, followed by two rapid finds by each dog. The judges had set no time limit for Read more

The Finalist

December 31, 2017 | Short Stories | Comments
John Pace got the word on his return home to Georgia from North Dakota where he had spent July and August training pointers. Six to nine months to live. The end would likely come quickly, until it did he would likely be able to work. He took the news philosophically, for there was no other way to take it. He had no children, his wife had died two years ago. Read more

Handler: The Life of Fred Dileo ~ Chapter Four

December 29, 2017 | Fred Dileo | Comments
How did Fred Dileo become a handler? From the bottom up, starting with nothing, fueled by determination and a desire to learn. He traveled to Texas after high school, worked in construction a while, then on a dude ranch. His mother had given him a Setter pup during high school. He trained it to hunt on pheasants on a state wildlife management area near his home and skipped school to Read more

Handler: The Life of Fred Dileo ~ Chapter Three

December 28, 2017 | Fred Dileo | Comments
Three essential ingredients make a handler: Mentors, owners, dogs. These ingredients plus talent and work, tempered by dedication, or determination. On these Fred Dileo built his career. Then on the personal side, there was Patricia, the love of his life, and Taylor, his daughter, much like him in personality and equestrian skills and like her mother, a beauty. Riding at Chinquapin in 1995 to watch his Double Rebel Buck was Read more

Handler: The Life of Fred Dileo ~ Chapter Two

December 27, 2017 | Fred Dileo | Comments
I met Fred in January 1995 at the Florida Open All-Age Championship. He was there to run his string, including Double Rebel Buck, who emerged the Champion. I was there to report my first field trial, as excited as a six year old on Christmas Eve. Fred was thirty-four, I was fifty-seven. Fred and Buck would repeat the win in 1996, and I would repeat as reporter (2018 will be Read more

Handler: The Life of Fred Dileo ~ Chapter One

December 26, 2017 | Fred Dileo | Comments
This is the story of a man who began with nothing and reached the pinnacle of his profession at age forty-six, only to be struck down in a senseless vehicle accident. His profession was all-age pointing dog trainer-handler, an obscure calling unknown to all but a few. Yet, among the small cadre of field trialers scattered across North America, the profession carries a mystique, and its top practitioners are deeply Read more

Incompatible (A Story for Christmas)

December 24, 2017 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach was accustomed to inquiries about employment from plantation dog men in the spring. In fact the firings and quittings among them in that season was known as the Spring Shuffle. But when Red Roberts called Joanne for an appointment the week before Christmas and reported he was out of a job, Ben could hardly believe it. First, because this was prime quail hunting season. Plantation owners had guests Read more

Apprentice Scout

December 19, 2017 | Short Stories | Comments
The year was 1961. Mose Green had scouted for Ike Weeks thirty years. Mose was black. Ike was white. They lived mid-March through June in Southwest Georgia, but spent most of nine months of the year away, July through mid-September on Canadian prairie, the rest of the year on the road traveling to trial venues, Midwest, Southwest, finally Deep South for the cold months. They traveled in a two-ton truck, Read more