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
When January Comes
Category: Remembrances
No Regrets
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Pete and Big Jack
I wish
I could see once more
Pete Hicks turn loose Big Jack
At Chinquapin where he won in ‘87 Read more