Chinquapin Farm

Handler’s Prayer For One More Cast

Oh, I long for one more entry To ride behind of a crisp morning When we gather on the pipeline For the prayer for a safe ride Yes, I long to swing up on Monty My old handling horse I swapped for When my buddy lacked gas money And I’d just won the Derby Read more

Spring Shuffle Delayed

July 29, 2024 | Ben Reach, Short Stories, Ted Baker | Comments

Oliver Bain sold his AI (artificial intelligence) Unicorn (billion-dollar start-up) to Microsoft instead of taking it public. He was 58, and unknown to any around him, had a secret ambition he would now satisfy. As a boy growing up on a farm in Virginia, he had walked with his father, a dirt farmer, behind home grown pointers and setters after quail. Read more

Leonard

June 7, 2024 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Remembrances | Comments

I reported my first field trial in January 1995 and my last in January 2022, both at Chinquapin Farm, both the Florida Open All-Age Championship. Many in between all over the continent and every year the Florida. All but a few on borrowed horses. Read more

How the Florida Open All-Age Championship Was Different

November 30, 2022 | Florida Open All-Age Championship | Comments

1. No mud — ever, on Chinquapin Farm, even after heavy rain. No creeks, much less rivers. Three man-dug ponds, one at Big House, one on second morning hour course, one on second hour afternoon course. Soil: sand over lime rock, everywhere. Cover: wire grass, everywhere. No crop fields. No wooded areas that cannot be ridden through on horseback. Read more

Ted Baker

May 5, 2022 | Other Things, Ted Baker | Comments

On behalf of the family, thanks to all of you for being here. Today’s display of love and respect means the world to those of us who Ted left behind. I’m sure he is looking down with a big smile on his face and a tear in his eye. TED BAKER WAS NO ORDINARY MAN. Read more

Mr. Ted

April 29, 2022 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Poetry, Ted Baker | Comments

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

What’s This?

March 15, 2022 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Poetry | Comments

What’s This? You ask. Just the best hour field trial course In all Quaildom Read more

Chinquapin Immortals

January 24, 2022 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Poetry | Comments

I reflect on Chinquapin After twenty-seven Florida Championships Reported there From 1995 through 2022 A piece of earth crafted From lime-rock and sand Covered in wire grass Jack oaks and sparse pines Sculpted uneven by The Master With an all-age bird dog in mind Its courses laid out in 1969 By Fred Arant nickname Goochy Since then it has served As a place to hunt quail And for a week Read more

T. Jack and Ted and the Florida Championship

January 14, 2022 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, T. Jack Robinson, Ted Baker | Comments

Many a friendship has been inspired by a mutual love of bird dogs. My favorite story of such a friendship is that of T. Jack Robinson and Edward L. “Ted” Baker. That friendship spawned many others, and led to the breeding and development of legendary All-Age and Shooting Dog Champions over six decades and a premier wild bird field-trial Championship celebrating its 50th Anniversary. Read more

2021 Florida Open All-Age Championship

February 6, 2021 | Field Trial Reports, Florida Open All-Age Championship | Comments

Fifty-four dogs, including two English setters, were drawn for the Florida Open All-Age Championship, starting January 10, 2021 at Chinquapin Farm, Branford, Florida under the experienced eyes of judges Cecil Rester of Angie, Louisiana and Woody Watson of Leesburg, Georgia. Read more