Remembrances

My Love Affair With Chinquapin

January 10, 2024 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Remembrances, Ted Baker | Comments

My long life (85 years) has been marked by good luck. None so great as meeting Ted Baker and gaining his invitation to report the Florida Open All-Age Championship which I did from 1995 through 2022. As a result, I watched the continent’s best all-age dogs in competition head to head annually over twenty-seven consecutive years on wild quail. Just think of it. Read more

Joe

November 15, 2023 | Poetry, Remembrances | Comments

He was the best I ever owned But in truth he owned me A setter pup from Flash and Pat From their first litter of a dozen more Joe Prince gave me Joe A weanling gift for Christmas I’d got Flash for him from Bill Anderson And Pat for him from Arthur Bean She a daughter of Alamance Pride Runner-Up to Hilmar for Arthur in the Eastern Open ‘76 Flash Read more

When January Comes

October 17, 2023 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Poetry, Remembrances, 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

No Regrets

August 4, 2023 | Remembrances | Comments

My life grows short I somehow know But I dread not death Or where I’ll go Read more

More Field Trial Friends Remembered ~ Marshall Loftin

July 7, 2023 | Remembrances | Comments

Like Ed Mack Farrior, Marshall was a link to a glorious period for field trials and a consummate raconteur. He had also seen his share of hard times. He was not an admirer of The National Bird Dog Champion Association, for a very personal reason—its rigidity had cost him his best customer and field trials its most avid English setter sponsor, Dr. J. U. Morrison. Read more

More Field Trial Friends Remembered ~ Ed Mack Farrior

June 24, 2023 | Ed Mack Farrior, Remembrances | Comments

Meeting Mr. Ed Mack Farrior was one of my most fortunate human encounters. I had been invited to report the Amateur Free-For-All at Union Springs. Knowing fellow Virginian Parke Brinkley and Mr. Ed Mack were close friends, I asked Parke to provide an introduction. Read more

Field Trial Friends Remembered ~ Luke Weaver

June 20, 2023 | Luke Weaver, Remembrances | Comments

A gift of old age is remembrances of friends departed. Here are a few of my favorites. Luke Weaver Read more

When Field Trial History Rhymed

May 18, 2023 | National Championship, Non-fiction, Remembrances | Comments

The field trial seasons of 2006-07 and 2022-23 rhymed, to paraphrase Mark Twain’s adage, “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Read more

Characters in My Life

May 5, 2023 | Donald McCaig, Remembrances | Comments

I look back on a long, full life and remember the characters in it. By characters I mean folks who were unconventional, unusual, different, distinctive, and giving to me — of friendship or knowledge or both. I want to briefly remember a few of them, one here and others later in other brief essays. I start with Donald McCaig, the kindest, gentlest most unselfishly giving-to-me-person I ever knew, for no reason but a shared love of working dogs, his for sheep dogs — Border Collies — mine for pointing dogs. Read more

Memories

March 18, 2023 | Remembrances | Comments

With no Florida Championship to report this year, I have turned to re-reading memoirs of great field trial handlers, namely Jack Harper, Ed Mack Farrior and Leon Covington (via his biographer, John Chriswell). Their careers spanned 6 decades (1919 through 1960s). I knew only Mr. Ed Mack, and what a privilege! Read more