I loved Ted Baker like all of us
‘Cause he loved us in spite of us
He gave us a place that was ideal
To run the Sunshine and the Florida for 60 years Read more
Mr. Ted
Category: Other Things
Hi-Tech Climax
It was the end of the season. It promised to be a battle royal between two all-age dog-handler-scout teams. The dogs were Gen-X and Millennial, full-brother pointers, sired in West Kentucky, the latter from a year-earlier litter. The handlers were Mike Eanes and Ike Reams, former team mates in a “helpin’ each other” partnership that went sour. The scouts were Archie Bell and Will Smith, twenty-something former Georgia high-school baseball rivals who had pitched opposite one another in consecutive-year state championship finals games, each winning and losing one. There was no love lost between opposing team members. But that was nothing compared to the rivalry between the dogs’ owners. Read more
A Magic Day
December 22, 2021 was a magic day for me. Why merits telling you a story.
I am now eighty-three years young, and no longer shoot, for reasons of safety (mine and my companions). Until recent years quail and grouse hunting were my fall and winter therapy for the cares of life. Bird dogs and watching them do their thing still are. 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
Before DNA
Among the best things the American Field Publishing Company did for field trailers was to institute the DNA testing requirement. Why?
Before DNA testing many ways to cheat on representing the parentage of bird dogs existed and were frequently used by the unscrupulous. Here is one example.
Read more
Reflections on The American Field
I was an avid reader (or scanner) of the Field for all its print-format years from about 1965 onward. I published a piece in its Holiday (Christmas) issue every year from 1973 onward. After I started reporting trials in 1995 I published several reports each year, including of the Florida Championship every year, the Invitational at Paducah ten years, the Continental and Free-For-All several years, and the Lee County (a personal favorite) many years, all filled with fun for me. Read more
The American Field (1874-2021)
The American Field Publishing Company is no more, as an independent entity. On September 1 it and its Field Dog Stud Book were acquired by the United Kennel Club, an international for-profit registry for Coon Hounds, Beagles and other working (or sporting) breeds, including curs and feists. It could have been worse. Its website announcement says it intends to continue and honor the Field’s pointing dog trial traditions. Let us hope it can and will do so. 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