Pointing dog birthdays always occur in the first week of January. True or False? Read more
Field Trials — Gentleman’s Sport?
Category: Field Trials
The Moment
There comes a moment in every good field trial bird dog’s life when it realizes its purpose: to win field trials with its handler. To that moment, it may understand its handler’s desire to have it do his or her will, but not the purpose of the handler’s desire. But the moment a dog comes to understand what it and its handler are trying to accomplish together, is the magic moment. Read more
Perfect Revenge, Almost
The opportunity for revenge came thirty years after the despicable act calling for revenge.
Let us start with the despicable act. Read more
End of the Season
Another season ending
The quail pairing off
Dogs and horses road weary
Handlers and scouts wore out
They’ve been on the road
Since August
Starting up north
Hauling dogs and horses
To new grounds week by week Read more
What’s a Field Trial?
When you get asked that
At a cocktail party
Or a Bar-B-Q
You can never explain
No matter how hard you try Read more
The Boys of the Road
The boys of the road
Follow a circuit
That starts way up north
As summer is ending
They’ve been up there
Since mid July
Training young bird dogs
And young riding horses Read more
Arthur and Sam
December 26, 1975: in the arcane world of horseback shooting dog competition, it was the best of times and the worst of times... Read more
One Find Champions
“It’s bird dog, not birds dog,” judge Andy Crowell said when I asked him how he and fellow judge Rich Robertson had chosen Lester’s Georgia Time as 2018 Florida Champion, handled by Robin Gates for Jim Clark and Baker Hubbard of Columbus, Georgia, with only one find, and that of a single hiding in a hedge row and found by the dog while it was regaining the front after a change in direction of its course. Andy explained that in an all-age stake it was race, not bird finding, that counted most. And Time’s race had been outstanding, all at the front and searching. Read more
25 Years of The Florida Championship, Part 2
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
Remembering the Quail Championship Invitational (1996 – 2006)
Reading John Russell’s splendid new book, The Invitational Champions, has brought back precious memories of the eleven years it was my privilege to report the trial at Paducah.
My invitation to report came from John after my first report of the Florida Championship in 1995. I had attended the trial at Paducah as a spectator briefly in 1993 when Silver Bullett won his second crown, no Runner-Up.
Judging in 1996 were Marshall Loftin, Bill Perry and Dr. Dorwin Hawthorne, and they shared with me generously their impressions of performances, which I sorely needed in light of my limited experiences watching all-age dogs. Read more