Short Stories

A Reversal of Fortune

June 29, 2018 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

When Ben Reach heard Bill Bain had gone to work as dog trainer on Twisted Pine Plantation, he cringed. Bill had for many years been a for-the-public-over-the-road trainer-handler of all-age pointing dogs. He’d given it up to take the plantation job for the usual reason — economics. He’d found it impossible to make a living any longer, for his expenses had overwhelmed his revenue. He’d had bad luck of several sorts — best customer quit the game, two best dogs sustained disabling injuries, two others were taken from him by their owners who sensed his operation was collapsing. That had been the last straw for Bill. He’d sold his horses at the last trial he attended, returned the rest of his string of dogs to their owners, dropped off his horse trailer at the dealership that held the lien, done the same with his dually. That left him with only a ten-year-old midsize Dodge pickup and two sets of tack, which he took with him to Twisted Pine. Read more

The Reformation

June 18, 2018 | Short Stories | Comments

Charlie Eanes had a weakness. He was obsessed with owning a National Championship winner. He had for thirty years campaigned all-age dogs with Fred Barnes who had come close to delivering a National Champ for Charlie, but never quite. He and his scout Booty Blevins worked hard each season to get Charlie’s all-age contenders qualified (on average Charlie sent monthly checks for three all-age and one or two derbies). Currently they had all three of Charlie’s all-ages half qualified, and they had high hopes of putting another first on two of them. This year’s derby also seemed promising, though like most derbies, inconsistent. Read more

The Redemption

June 4, 2018 | Short Stories | Comments

Billy Culp had tried the circuit and failed. In his third year his principal customer, for whom he had two all-age and two derby dogs, declared bankruptcy, leaving Billy unpaid three months’ fees plus more than a thousand in entry fees advanced. Billy had been forced to return to their owners the rest of his string and to surrender his truck and trailer to the lien-holding finance companies. Deeply humiliated, he hired on as assistant dog trainer on Bubbling Branch Plantation east of Thomasville, recently purchased by a newborn billionaire of the technology world who had just sold his unicorn to Amazon, Jake Barnes. Read more

What To Do

June 1, 2018 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Billy Cole was in his second season as a for-the-public over-the-road pointing dog handler on the all-age circuit. Based at Leesburg, Georgia, he trained in summers in North Dakota, then after competing in prairie trials drifted South week by week, arriving at home in time for the piney woods country’s opener, the Lee County Trial. He was holding his own, if barely, with two of the eight dogs in his string consistent threats whenever put down, a statistic common to those plying his trade. Read more

Once Upon a Time

May 26, 2018 | Short Stories | Comments

Readers have often accused me of false labeling non-fiction as fiction. There may be some occasional truth in the accusation, for all fiction is born of a true story, observed or heard somewhere and bent by an author like a red hot horse shoe by a farrier. So I begin here with a confession. This story is all true save for names. It happened many decades ago. So I begin here with a confession. This story is all true save for names. It happened many decades ago. Read more

A Wise Dog Man

May 21, 2018 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Ben Reach and Sam Nixon MD again found themselves at a funeral, this time a graveside service on Bentover Pine Plantation outside Thomasville. The ashes being buried were those of Bentover’s owner Hiram Prichard of Cleveland, an old-money heir to a coal baron fortune. The curmudgeons found themselves standing by Ralph Eanes, a bird dog trainer their age from Camilla. In his day Ralph had campaigned some good ones, but he’d figured out the economics of the road didn’t work for him, and thereafter stayed on the farm his father had left him, raised a few pups and broke them for plantation wagon dogs or personal gun dogs for shoe-leather bird hunters, a shrinking constituency. Read more

The Handoff ~ Part IV (Conclusion)

May 3, 2018 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

With the deal done, the four men went back to Arleigh’s camp for a celebratory supper of steaks on the grill. On the short drive, Mr. Brown made several phone calls. Whiskey flowed, field trial stories were told by Arleigh and Brown’s dog man, some true, some maybe not. The steaks, supplied by Mr. Brown and grilled by his dog man, an expert, were the best Bob had ever eaten and though food didn’t taste good to Arleigh since the onset of his illness he enjoyed the first few bites. Then Mr. Brown made an announcement. Read more

The Handoff ~ Part III

May 2, 2018 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

The back-to-back trials at Columbus were drawn together, and as soon as the results were out Bob used Arleigh’s smart phone to email the brace sheets to Mr. Brown and his dog man. Next morning Arleigh got a call telling him they would fly up in Mr. Brown’s private jet to see their Rebel derby run in the first derby stake. He invited them to come on arrival to the camp for a cook out and to see where their derby had been trained. After driving them around the training grounds in Arleigh’s truck they went back to camp for drinks and steaks on the grill. While the three adults talked, drinks in hand, Bob put on at Arleigh’s direction a hoop shooting and dribbling exhibition. In two minutes Mr. Brown had stopped chatting and was mesmerized watching Bob as he sank three pointers one after another from all angles and every few minutes drove the bucket and dunked. When fifteen minutes later Bob took a break, Mr. Brown and his dog man broke into applause. For the rest of the evening most of the conversation was between Mr. Brown and Bob. Read more

The Handoff ~ Part II

May 1, 2018 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Arleigh decided on a strategy for the remains of their summer. He would invite other handlers training nearby to come work with them for a day or two. It was a tradition in the game, gave the dogs a chance to hunt new ground, the handlers and help an opportunity to socialize and see how the competition’s prospects were coming along. While he had only been roading Rampaging, which he planned to sell by the end of the prairie trials, he would show the dog to select handlers he figured had an owner willing to pay a good price. He had for sale also the three derby siblings of Rampaging and they were coming along pretty well. They were also teaching Bob about training. Read more

The Handoff ~ Part I

April 30, 2018 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Arleigh Gant had campaigned two decades, but this would be his last season. He’d gotten the news from his doctor in June. He’d decided to go to North Dakota in July as usual, but with only one adult dog. That dog would be Rampaging, a first-year, and last season’s Derby of the Year. Arleigh still owned him. He’d told his four dog owners of his decision to quit the circuit but not the reason. He did not want anyone to know of his illness. He’d sent the owners’ dogs to other handlers of their choice. He would take also three coming derbies of his own, siblings of Rampaging from his bitch Hannah, sired like Rampaging by Miller’s White Powder, now banned. Read more