Other Things

Andy

It is not hard to find joy and sorrow joined close together in our game. In fact, they are a recurring theme in the human-canine dramas that tie together men and women and great field trial bird dogs. As I reflect on the dramas surrounding the Florida Open All-Age Championship over the twenty-seven years I reported it, none is so poignant as that of Chinquapin Andy, Florida Champion in 2009 and 2010, his trainer-handler, Joe Hicks, and his owners, Ted Baker and T. Jack Robinson. Read more

A Derby

March 10, 2023 | Bird Dogs, Short Stories | Comments

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

Silverwood at Chinquapin

February 28, 2023 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Great All-Age Dogs, Poetry | Comments

“What was the best race You ever saw?” “Silverwood’s at Chinquapin 2002” Read more

Field Trials — Gentleman’s Sport?

January 6, 2023 | Field Trials, Other Things | Comments

Pointing dog birthdays always occur in the first week of January. True or False? Read more

Happy Day

December 29, 2022 | Grouse Hunting, Poetry | Comments

My grandson shot his first grouse today Over the point of my son’s Trixie Daughter of Shadow Oak Bo And the best we have owned in sixty years Read more

When January Comes

December 24, 2022 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Poetry, Ted Baker | Comments

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

Hunting Grouse

November 8, 2022 | Grouse Hunting, Remembrances | Comments

Hunting grouse when I was young was my escape. No matter my troubles, and they sometimes seemed many, I could make them go away for a day. I would rise at four and jump into my boots, orange shirt, khakis and briar chaps and load my dogs in the trunk of my Dodge Demon and drive west to Augusta, Highland or Bath County, turn out a setter dog at the head of a holler and walk up it. Read more

For Want of a Nail

October 19, 2022 | Other Things, Remembrances | Comments

My career reporting field trials is over with the discontinuance of the Florida Open All-Age Championship following Ted Baker’s death. I was honored to report it from 1995 through 2022. Over those years I reported many others, including the Continental Derby and All-Age Championships, the National Open Free-For-All and National Derby Championships, the National Amateur Free-For-All Championship, the Lee County trial, and, most memorably, the Quail Championship Invitational at Paducah from 1996 through 2006. Read more

What Kind of Man

September 22, 2022 | Other Things, Ted Baker | Comments

Many folks have asked me, What sort of man was Ted Baker? An incident during the 2015 Florida Championship answers the question eloquently. At the end of the running, judges Cecil Rester and Gary Lester named Utah’s Red Rock Express Champion based on a big six-find finals race. Read more

My Life as a Field Trial Reporter

August 30, 2022 | Other Things, Remembrances | Comments

My life as a field trial reporter began in 1995 when I was 57. Before that I had been a farmer (1950-1960) and a lawyer (1961-present). Reporter was by far my most satisfying profession. Why? Because it was fantasy. It allowed me to ride horseback and watch world-class bird dogs perform and compete across beautiful hunting grounds, handled and scouted by professionals seeking perfection, then write accounts of what I had seen. What could be more fun than that? For me, nothing. Read more