I wish I could ride again
One more time
Ole Leonard
Over course two
On Chinquapin
See Silverwood Read more
I Wish
Category: Bird Dogs
What if?
What if there were no more field trials?
Soon there would be only ankle warmers
For only competition’s testing leads to better breeding
It’s not a way-out theory
It’s the truth Read more
A Derby
In the hearts of true all-age pointing dog devotees, nothing is so important as a talented derby. A derby is a two-year-old.
What defined a talented derby: potential for greatness as an all-age, or adult, competitor. And greatness in pointing dogs involved many talents. But the one always recognized: excitement, the ability to produce it. Read more
The Cadillac Farm
I met Joe Prince November 14, 1973, introduced by his brother David, a life insurance salesman seeking prospect referrals from me, a 35-year-old lawyer doing estate planning in Richmond, Virginia. Joe was a grain farmer in Sussex County, forty miles south of Richmond at the village of Stony Creek. But Joe’s claim to fame was as a quail hunter of a special kind, the kind every city-bound quail hunter longs to have as a friend. Read more
The Conflict
A lawyer fears a conflict of interest like a foot-plowing share cropper fears a kicking mule. And so fear grew in me after on impulse I recommended Sweetie to John Bassett as a grouse dog after his beloved Jill went to her reward. That recommendation put me in jeopardy of losing both my two best friends and best client and principal source of referrals, and my regular quail-hunting partner and key to quail hunting territory. Read more
Worthless Dog ? Maybe, Maybe Not
If you are a long-time bird hunter or field trailer you have started and given up on many prospects you judged deficient or worse. This is the story of three such I gave away and that proved more than useful to its donee. Read more
What Do I Owe Bird Dogs?
Among the boring habits of the old is talking about their pasts. At least I write of mine, so friends can easily turn me off — just stop reading.
So here mostly for my own amusement is an essay on what bird dogs have meant to me. If you are still reading you likely have a similar essay inside you. Read more
Gunny
Ask a professional trainer-handler of pointing dogs to name his best dog ever and you will likely get an ambiguous or evasive answer. Not so from Jim Heckert, who broke into the pro ranks long ago and has been at it ever since while also managing quail shooting plantations, including Wire Grass at Albany, Georgia for Thomas Vail of Cleveland Plain Dealer fame and currently Cedar Grove Plantation at Clarksville, Virginia for my friend Will Pannill. Read more
Ben
Over six decades my heart has been owned by a series of bird dogs, all but one an English Setter. The one exception was Ben, an English (or American) Pointer. As I remember them all in reverie, Ben appears in my mental DVD again and again. He was talented, and handsome, and lovable, and happily memorable. Just bringing him up in my mind’s eye makes me want to hug him. Read more