Category: Field Trial Recollections

Reflections on the Second Course at Chinquapin and “27”

February 6, 2021 | Florida Open All-Age Championship | Comments
It has been my privilege to report the Florida Open All-Age Championship at Chinquapin Farm each year since 1995. In those years I have watched many great performances by the best all-age dogs competing in four decades. The memories of those races are indelible, subject to recall when least expected, sometimes on waking in the night, sometimes when driving to an appointment, sometimes on seeing a dog’s or handler’s name Read more

25 Years of The Florida Championship, Part 2

January 13, 2019 | Field Trials, Florida Open All-Age Championship | Comments
January’s second week Brings them South to Chinquapin In dually trucks pulling gooseneck trailers Loaded with horses and bird dogs determined Determined to win On this hallowed ground Where quail aplenty are to be found Unless they decide they will not be found That is the mystery They all seek to solve How some days or hours They’re everywhere And others they vanish Into thin air or some say the Read more

The Test

April 20, 2018 | National Championship, Short Stories | Comments
Carl Dean slept little. He was up as usual at five. He and his partner Fred Archer were living for the duration of the National Championship in a former tenant house on a farm ten miles east of the Ames Plantation. This was the trial’s last day, and Fred Archer’s sole entry, Arkansas Andy, would go down in the afternoon brace. Carl would scout. His inability to sleep last night Read more

A Rivalry

February 16, 2018 | National Championship, National Free-For-All Championship, Short Stories | Comments
It’s the 1930s, times are desperate, the Great Depression has the world in its grip, yet for a few at the top nothing has changed. So it is for Harley Keen and Richard Bain, owners of businesses whose products are still in demand at prices producing a profit. Keen’s is tobacco, Bain’s is whiskey, legal again with Prohibition’s repeal. They are sports, and their shared passion is bird dog field Read more