Category: Remembrances

Robin and Rick in Alberta

March 15, 2020 | Remembrances | Comments
Rick told me of a trip to a trial in Alberta he and Robin made back when they were getting started with just a few shooting dogs in their strings. The trial had stakes in every open category and they ended up with winners or placements in all except the Derby. They were feeling good about it. Robin had been talking on the way out west about how he felt constant pressure to uphold the Gates name and reputation. Read more

Robin and Rick

March 14, 2020 | Remembrances | Comments
I had a phone conversation with Rick Furney this week that brought back vividly memories from the past quarter century and beyond, sweet memories of watching Robin and Rick compete head to head in field trials across the country. I first watched Robin handle at the Eastern Open Shooting Dog Championship at South Hill, Virginia, in 1976 when Hilmar won for Larry Moon and Alamance Pride was Runner-Up for Arthur Bean, and Robin handled a marvelous string of shooting dogs. That was forty-four years ago! Read more

How Many Miles

February 24, 2020 | Prose, Remembrances | Comments
How many miles Did the Big Man ride Behind a bird dog Puppy, Derby, All-Age? Through heat and storm On prairie and in pines From Canada to Florida From boy to aging man Read more

Gunny

September 4, 2019 | Bird Dogs, Remembrances | Comments
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

Farm Jobs I Did and Did Not Like

May 23, 2019 | Remembrances | Comments
My boyhood farm jobs started at age six with opening gates for my father to drive through in his 38 Chevy and spreading two-handful piles of salt at ten-foot intervals in hilltop pasture cow trails, then calling the stock in to savor it with, “Coo sheep, Coo, Soo Calf, Soo,” until they arrived on the run to lick the salt up and be counted and inspected. This job came every Sunday afternoon as my father, his friend Jack Atkinson, a fellow farmer and N&W Trainman, and I inspected the stock on both their farms. This job I loved. Read more

Ben

May 9, 2019 | Bird Dogs, Remembrances | Comments
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

Horse and Mule Tradin’ Stories

March 4, 2019 | Other Things, Remembrances | Comments
My friend Jim Heckert, Manager of Cedar Grove Plantation, Clarksville, Virginia, just gave me two really good books, Horse Tradin’ and More Horse Tradin’ by Ben K. Green DVM. The stories in them got me thinking about my heritage. My paternal grandfather, Harry McClanahan Word (1865-1944), was in his first career a successful farmer-livestock dealer, and my father (1897-1954) apprenticed under him. That’s where I got my love of all things agrarian. My grandfather Harry’s life story is filled with cautionary tales, the first being Stick With What You Know. Read more