The field trial seasons of 2006-07 and 2022-23 rhymed, to paraphrase Mark Twain’s adage, “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Read more
When Field Trial History Rhymed
Category: Field Trial Recollections
1938
It was a desperate year by every measure. The Great Depression had refused to end; war threatened again in Europe as Germany, now under Hitler’s thumb, smoldered with resentment under the punishing terms of the Treaty of Versailles; and most Americans lived in poverty, those rural who had no debt the best off because they could at least grow and put up their own food for winter and darn their threadbare garments and socks. Read more
Silverwood at Chinquapin
“What was the best race
You ever saw?”
“Silverwood’s at Chinquapin 2002” Read more
Four Men Two Dogs One Spare Tire
They were two-man teams of rivals. Some thought enemies, but they were not. They were famous, in a very small, obscure world. Each was a trainer-handler or a scout of all-age pointing dogs.
Each handler worked with a scout, usually a black man, who traveled with him in a two-ton stock-bed truck they drove from trial to trial hauling the horses they rode to handle and scout off of and the dogs in the string of pointers (and occasionally a setter) they entered in the trials.
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Chinquapin Second Week January
Oh, Chinquapin
I miss you so
This first January
Without your trial Read more
The Florida Championship
The Florida Championship is no more
A glorious trial is over forever
Like all things conceived by mortal man
It had a beginning and has come to an end
It was unique in many ways
Embodied the best of the field trial game
Wild quail on sloping prairie-like land
Wire grass cover over sand Read more
Two Slate Signs at Livingston Place
The Continental Open All-Age Championship
Livingston Place in 2002
Cindy Crawford Top Qualifier
Barshoe Esquire Champion
Dale Bush and Sherry Ebert judged
Cindy’s qualifying race for Jimmy Edmundson
On the day’s last course
Was spectacular Read more
When January Comes
When January comes
I will be here at home
First time since 1994
Won’t be at Chinquapin
The second week
Of that cold month at home
I spent in North Florida
From 1995 through 2022 Read more
A Brace at Ames
The year was 1938. The place was the Ames Plantation at Grand Junction, Tennessee, 55 miles east of the Mississippi River at Memphis. The event was the National Bird Dog Championship. It had been held most years since 1896, and here since 1901. The subject of this story is the winning performance and the players in it, canine, equine and human. Read more
How the Florida Open All-Age Championship Was Different
1. No mud — ever, on Chinquapin Farm, even after heavy rain. No creeks, much less rivers. Three man-dug ponds, one at Big House, one on second morning hour course, one on second hour afternoon course. Soil: sand over lime rock, everywhere. Cover: wire grass, everywhere. No crop fields. No wooded areas that cannot be ridden through on horseback.
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