Last July I visited my friend and longtime amateur field trialer, Dr. Warren Sims at his home in northern Maine on the Canadian border. We talked about how the clubs and trials in Maine and New Brunswick have changed over the many years that Warren competed with his dogs.

SA_Podcast4_WarrenSims.mp3

Standing: Frank Pride, Warren Sims, Walter Young. Kneeling: Davis Cox, Alan Moyer, Larry Mahar. Date unknown.

The Midcoast Maine Field Trial Club hosted Northeastern Grouse and Woodcock Championship which began September 23rd following this interview was well attended by amateurs. Of the 27 entries, 14 dogs were handled by 9 amateurs, 13 by 3 professionals. This is not a big entry for this championship which in past years boasted of as many as 60 to 70 dogs. However given that trials and several championships in the northeast have experienced particularly low numbers of participants in the last few years, it is a hopeful sign. The championship was judged by a well-respected amateur and by a local professional handler who kindly gave of his time and expertise in lieu of entering his own string of dogs.

The Midcoast Maine FT Club, of which I am a member, is to be commended for its efforts over the past years to attract new field trialers. The club’s spring trial boasts a Gun Dog stake so popular, the number of entries rival the regular stakes. The Gun Dog stake is non sanctioned and open to any person with any kind of pointing dog. It is run on Sunday morning, the second day of the trial, with club members and trial participants in attendance giving encouragement and tips to the newcomers. A revolving trophy goes to the winner.

The Maine Bird Dog Club was established in March 1972. Last published in 1992 the club’s 24 page booklet covering their bylaws, operating procedures etc., reads in Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution:

This organization is established for the purpose of improving pointing bird dogs, particularly by holding field trials to test the qualities of the dogs competing. Other objects are the promotion of good fellowship among sportsmen, a greater refinement in the use of dog and gun, and to increase interest in the conservation and propagation of game birds.

Further along...

The Northern New England Woodcock Championship was established to show-case the premier competitors of grouse and woodcock coverts. These competitors are expected to be fleet of foot, bold in application and animated in motion as they pattern their race to the fore. Their pointing style should be intense and pleasing and these dogs should back willingly if the opportunity is presented. The tightness of some coverts are such that dogs may not be aware of another dog’s pointing stance; therefore judges are discouraged from asking handlers to bring dogs in for a back and to be cautious when charging a dog with failure to back. A champion will finish its race with a reserve of energy.

Extreme range is a deterrent to the desired forward responsive race that marks the true champion. Indeed, the sine qua non of the winning performances by grouse and woodcock competitors is handling response. While extreme range is undesirable, it must also be noted that close handling, patterning dogs are not the desired standard.

(What constitutes “extreme range” has always been somewhat open to interpretation. What is extreme to one handler or judge may not be to others. “Handling response” is, however, much less open to interpretation and is, by knowledgeable field trial judges, a requirement of any worthy field trial performance.) 

Southhill Molly

Pat LaBree with unidentified English setter. Date unknown.

Reports from Maine Bird Dog Club trials from 1976 and 1979:

1976MBDCTrialReport.pdf

1979MBDCTrialReport.pdf

Reports courtesy of the American Field Publishing, Inc.

The new Strideaway website will feature more field trial photos, ease of navigation, a robust search engine to find archived articles, rich fast-loading photo galleries, links to popular social media, more unique store items...and much much more. And we’ll be offering great new advertising opportunities for our sponsors.

We welcome your thoughts, ideas and photos of field trial grounds and are looking for more regular contributors to continue to make Strideaway a rich resource for all field trialers.

Please contact us if you would like to help.

This year we are planning to present many more podcast interviews with trainers, handlers, judges and other field trial and bird dog enthusiasts around the country.

Stay tuned for more information!

Copyright 2012 Strideaway

...Seldom does man achieve phenomenal success in the profession to which he has devoted more than half a century and still retain the candor, simplicity, and unpretentious modesty inherited from his forbears yet such a man was Luther Smith, dean of bird dog trainers—quail dogs, prairie chicken dogs, pheasant dogs, grouse dogs. He won championships from the sedge fields of Georgia and the Carolinas to the vast prairies of Saskatchewan, from the grouse coverts of New England and Pennsylvania through the pheasant areas of Buffalo and Baldwinsville to the pine woods of Michigan—truly an achievement seldom if ever accomplished by one man.

Born in Ripley, Miss., 78 years ago, Luther acquired his first bird dog at the age of twelve and thereby was generated by a love which activated the brilliant contributions which he made to the world of bird dogs and field trials. Perhaps his greatest achievement was acquired with the pointer Schoolfield, with which he won the All-America Prairie Chicken Championship, the All-America Quail Championship, and the National Pheasant Championship.

When World War II came along Luther interrupted his successful professional career to enter the K-9 Corps but his concepts of dog training were somewhat at variance with those of the military and he was subsequently transferred to the Burma Theater where, as the oldest doughboy in his outfit, he fought the jungles for seventeen months under the command of General Stilwell. Following an unexpected contact with some shrapnel and a precipitous dive into a foxhole, he spent several months in a hospital. When mustered out, Luther was told never to ride a horse again—truly unacceptable advice for a major circuit handler. However, fortunately for the grouse trial fraternity, he was discharged in Michigan and was persuaded by several men in that area to remain there and train grouse dogs, and what a career this handler of quail, pheasant and prairie chicken dogs carved for himself in the grouse woods! Winner of the Grand National Grouse Championship five times, the Grouse Futurity seven times with a total of 26-27 dogs placed in this stake, the Pennsylvania Grouse Championship and the Lake States Grouse Championship several times, the Grand National Puppy Classic and the Venango Grouse Puppy Classic more often that one can remember—truly a phenomenal record for a former big circuit handler.

Handler Luther Smith and Orchard Valley Melody. Standing: Mrs. Luther Smith, Mr. & Mrs. R. P. Habgood Jr., owners of Melody, winner of the 1963 Grand National Grouse Championship.

Luther was never loquacious, never known to speak ill of any individual or his dogs. No one ever knew exactly what he said to his own pointers and setters but he could “talk” them around a tight course in the grouse woods and come out with a National Champion which he did many times.

...Enshrined forever in the Hall of Fame (1970), his contributions to the sport of field trials will live for future generations to admire and revere. Luther Smith, “a better man,” has passed to his just reward. Peace be with him.

July 17, 1976 issue of the American Field 

Read Bill Allen’s great report from the 1965 Pennsylvania Grouse Championship: 1965PAGrouseChampionship.pdf

Read Dr. Tom Flanagan’s Tribute to Luther Smith published in 1976: LutherSmith_DrTomFlanagan.pdf

Courtesy the American Field Publishing

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our field trial and bird dog friends! Thanks to the continued support of our contributors, advertisers, and readers. 2012 brings our new website...design to be unveiled in the coming weeks!

Editor’s (Karoleigh Nitchman) Note. Dr. Alvin H. Nitchman of Hurtsboro, Ala., has successfully competed in field trials since he joined the English Setter Club at age sixteen in 1930. Several multiple champions have carried the Nitchman colors during the past fifty years, notably among them Ch. Pantagleize, Smart, Melita and Pork Roll. He is still an active breeder, amateur trainer and handler. Dr. Nitchman was elected to the Field Trial Hall of Fame in 1980.

K: To begin, how about telling me what you think to be the single most important thing a judge should do.

A: Keep his eyes open.

K: You mean on the dog?
A: Yes, there are too many people judging who look down at the ground, or if they are talking to somebody, they turn and look at that person. A man has to learn, if he is going to judge, to keep his eyes on the dog and to continue to keep his eyes on the dog even though he may be talking to someone.

K: What are the judges’ other responsibilities and what are the club officials responsible as far as running rules are concerned?
A: Well, in my opinion, the club can make any rules or qualifications, standards, it wants. I think that’s a good thing—that a club should have a standard.

K: And so the club instructs these judges as to what they should be looking for?
A: Yes, and it’s the club’s (officials) responsibility to acquaint the judges with the standard that they would like to have the dogs judged by. Now, if a judge doesn’t care to judge under that standard, he should refuse the assignment. Once a judge told me, “I heard the standard but I have my own standard.” Then he should not have accepted the judging assignment or he should have announced the standard he intended to judge by.

K: For the sake of the poor handlers out there trying to win the dog trial by having their dogs adhere to it?
A: Right. If they read that standard and the club professes to be looking for a dog to fit that standard, then the judge should, to the best of his ability, try to adhere to it.

K: What about the question of running in the rain or other foul weather—whose decision is it?
A: The ultimate responsibility would belong to the judges, but it could certainly be shared with the club officials to decide if conditions are not favorable enough to give each entry his fair shot at winning. Too many times they’ll just run on to get the trial over with and the dog doesn’t have a fair chance and is running under conditions that a dog couldn’t possibly win under.

K: Give me your famous quote about that—hurrying up the trial.
A: Well, it’s true. I always say if you came to go home, you should have stayed there.

K: I’ve often heard you complain about dogs not being given the same chance as others.
A: As far as possible, each dog should be given the same opportunity to win. One time I was at a trial and I was to run a dog in the first brace. Well, in order to get the trial over with that day, instead of running a single brace the next morning, the club officials wanted me to put down my dog at 7:00 a.m. rather than 8:00, the time they had been starting. There was frost on the ground at 7:00 and the sun was just up. I told them that I understood that they wanted to get the trail over and I didn’t want any special favors, but I did want the same chance as everybody else had. When I explained how I felt, they agreed with me. More than anyone else, the judge has to see that everyone gets his chance, but often, it’s the judge who wants to go home.

K: So if they’ve been running seven braces a day and one day the club officials say, “today we’re going to squeeze in nine,” it’s the judges who should say no?
A: Right. The judge has the final say.

K: Okay, well what about the pace of the trial—what does the judge have to say about it?
A:  The judge sets the pace and if the pace is too fast, it’s the judge’s fault and nobody else’s. If the handler wants to be a mile in front of the gallery, the judge should send a marshal to tell the handler to slow down. Many men say, “Well, if we just don’t follow him, he’ll get the idea,” but that’s wrong. There are two handlers and that front belongs to both of them. So if the judge just doesn’t follow and one handler rides way out, the handler has to as well, whether he wants to or not, and that’s not giving him a fair chance to show his dog the way he would like. If the judge just sits back and refuses to follow, he penalizes both dogs instead of just the one the handler is pushing.

I think the handlers today ride too far to the front. The handler comes out and maybe he only rides the braces in which he runs a dog. He races up on a little hill or rise and he’s a half mile to the front, and he sits up there and points his dog out. Well, he can’t be so foolish as to think that the judge who is riding eight or nine hours every day is going to gallop his horse to the top of that hill.

K: Do you think a lot of the problem with judges knowing or not knowing when to decide a thing like that is they are unsure of exactly what their responsibilities are?
A: True. But very seldom is a judge going to say anything to anybody because he doesn’t want to make anyone mad. Usually he just goes along at whatever pace the handlers set, galloping his horse when the man points his dog out, taking the easy way out. Now I think that when a dog points, the judge should hurry and get there in a reasonable length of time, particularly in a pheasant trial where the pheasant is not going to stay put. But I think it’s foolish to gallop to a stand. The dog is suppose to be broke.

K: So far, from what you’ve said, the judge’s real job is to see that everyone gets an equal opportunity to show his dog. What about the lost dog? The handler you’re braced with has lost his and is bellowing around the country trying to get him back.
A: Yes, well in field trials we don’t have many rules, but I think when a handler leaves the gallery, he should keep his mouth shut. When he gets way off to the side and continues to make a lot of noise, he’s got a good chance of taking my dog with him. That’s interfering with your bracemate—like riding off and taking your bracemate’s dog. Most handlers will stop and let you call your dog (mainly because that’s the way they want to be treated).

K: On the subject of interference, what about judges ordering dogs up?
A: The only time a judge can order a dog up is if that dog is interfering with his bracemate—and interference means trailing, fighting, flushing and chasing birds, refusing to back—in these cases, the dog should be ordered up. If a dog makes a mistake, many times a judge will say, “Well, you can go on and run him, but he’s out of consideration.” That’s not right. If the dog refused to back or chased, he should go on the rope right then. If you see him refuse to back, he’s not going to back when you’re not there and so, if you let him run on, you’re eliminating his bracemate’s chances to have a point honored and that could cost him the trial.

K: How about a judge coming and saying to you, “You’ve been down for forty minutes and we don’t like your dog and we’re not going to consider him. You can run him if you want to, but you may as well take him up.”
A: Well, that’s up to the handler. If the dog doesn’t please the judge and he doesn’t intend to place him, that’s it for the dog.

K: But he can run his dog on. He paid his money; doesn’t he have the right to be out there for his full time if he’s not interfering with his bracemate?
A: He has every right to run his dog the full time. George Hardin, when he was marshalling or judging, and knew the judges didn’t like a dog, would say “Course to the right, dog truck to the left.” Many people think that just because they are judges, they have the right to order a dog up just because they don’t like him. They do not.

K: Is that in the rule book?
A: According to Bill Brown, interference with a bracemate is the only reason for which a dog can be ordered up.

K: When a judge is judging a field trial, what do you think he should be looking for? Should he have in his mind a picture of the ideal performance and judge according to that?
A: Of course every judge has an ideal that he is trying to attain when he judges a field trial, but that doesn’t mean he is always going to attain that ideal. If, as a judge, you think you have dogs that are adequate but there are other dogs who might possibly do the job if you gave them another chance, run a second series. You can call back dogs you think can win if, in your opinion, it will improve the quality of the stake.

K: What about withholding a title?
A: In my opinion, if you have an adequate number of dogs, a representative entry, the dog that wins should win the title. I don’t think a judge should withhold a championship title unless there aren’t many dogs in the stake or unless they’ve run dogs a second time and have nothing at all. Dogs can’t help it if the conditions are poor.

K: There are so many championships now. It’s not as if there were only ten championships in the whole country and the judge withheld the title because no dog seemed of high enough caliber. Okay, the judge knows basically the kind of dog he’s looking for. How close a watch should he keep on the handler?
A: The judge is being shown the dog. I think a judge should ride at a reasonable pace and in a reasonable place but I see judges who ride in the horsetracks where a course is laid out and don’t deviate at all. The judges should take advantage of the terrain, ride up on a hill to look so that he can see what the dog is doing, but I don’t think he should follow the handler all the time. He should just try to be in a place where he can see what’s going on.

K: You have often stressed that it’s the handler’s job to show the judge his dog. How about assumptions? Suppose a judge sees a bird in the air and the dog in the vicinity. Should he assume the dog knocked the bird?
A: One time I was running a dog in the pheasant championship, and a bird flew off, high in the air, right to left. After a while, my dog came in the same direction and the judge said to me, “Do you see what I see?” “Well,” he said “you see the pheasant and you see your dog...” I said that I couldn’t see that the dog had made the pheasant fly just because she happened to be coming in the same direction. She wasn’t under the bird but he assumed she had flushed the bird and was chasing it. He just assumed that and threw her out of the stake.

K: How about if the dog had been gone for a while and someone in the gallery says he saw the dog chase some birds?
A: If the judge didn’t see it, he has to forget it. You can’t judge on assumption.

K: What about if you’re running a dog and you’re ten minutes into the brace and your dog has a find, you flush the birds and your dog gives a jump?
A: That’s a matter of personal preference. Some judges think that’s a terrible mistake and throw the dog out. But the dog could go on and have six perfect finds.

K: How about the other way? The dog had five perfect finds and gives a jump on the sixth one?
A: Home Again Mike the (1960) National Champion had pointed sixteen or eighteen perfect coveys of birds but put the last covey up and chased it. They still named him National Champion. It creates a controversy because most people think he’s out then. But those three judges thought that his entire performance was the best and they didn’t throw out their top dog for one mistake. Some people judge a field trial on the mistakes a dog makes. That’s wrong, they ought to choose a dog on his good qualities, a dog who stands out for many reasons. It’s possible to swallow a small mistake.

K: You’re saying not to throw dogs out to come up with the winner but to pick out the one who pleases you the most—it should be a selection rather than a weeding out. What about the year you and Bob Lindsey named Builder’s Addition the Master’s All-age Champion?
A: Yes, well he had six finds and jumped to shot on one of them but he was the dog we liked. He had it all—ran a great race and pointed his birds just right. It all depends on how the dog makes his mistake too. If, when he’d given his jump, he’d though he’d made a terrible mistake and laid down or rolled over and said his prayers, we couldn’t have used him. But he made a jump and just stood up there like a bull. So that jump didn’t matter to me or the other judge. He was the best dog, Maybe if there had been another dog we liked as much, we may have faulted him for it.

K: I remember there was a handler who gave you a really hard time for that placement.
A: He asked, “Why should we bother to break dogs then?” But what I said to him was that he wasn’t judging. I was. And that was the way I saw it. He’s entitled to his opinion.

K: What about this business of going to the judges after the trial and asking them about the placements?
A: That’s alright. Anybody ought to be able to come to a judge and ask, as long as he asks in the proper way and isn’t abusive. You can discuss the stake then.

K: What about discussing the trial during the running?
A: No sir. That’s a mistake. While the trial is going on, the judge should keep his own company, not go out drinking with the boys and should keep his mouth shut. I don’t think a judge should discuss the stake with anyone during the course of the trial, except the other judge, not the club official or the reporter.

K: What if a handler ran a good dog and is done running and asks the judge if he should go home or stick around?
A: That’s alright as long as the handler knows that if the judge tells him to stay it just means his dog is under consideration.

K: Everyone complains about judges. How do you get good judges? Should everyone have to judge?
A: When you judge a trial, it certainly changes how you think. Every professional ought to have to judge if only to give him a little different insight on what the job is. He’s used to looking only at his dogs, and then, through rose colored glasses. But when you have to look at everyone else’s and none of your own, you come out with a clearer perspective of the whole game.

Alvin and Karoleigh Nitchman with Champion Elhew Strike

Champion Melita

Champion Smart

Champion Pork Roll

Alvin Nitchman was a knowledgeable dog man and a highly successful amateur field trial competitor. Many of the dogs he bred, and/or trained and won with made an important contribution to the pointer breed including Ch. Smart, Ch. Pork Roll and Ch. Elhew Strike. He died on February 17, 2000.

Photos and Interview courtesy of the American Field Publishing.

Last month I sat down with Jerry Kolter of Minnesota's Northwoods Bird Dogs and asked him about his breeding program. Jerry and his wife Betsy have been breeding their line of English setters since 1995. Jerry has had a long successful career in field trials though today he concentrates more on training dogs and breeding setters and pointers for grouse/upland bird hunting and field trialing alike.

Thanks to Jerry for his insight.

Jerry Kolter in 1995 with Minnesota/Wisconsin Shooting Dog of the Year, Ch. Dance Smartly.

Champion Blue Streak, 2004, North Dakota

Click on the link below to listen to the Podcast Interview:

SA_Interview_JerryKolter.mp3

One claim I lay to uniqueness in this Life is the way my first sight of a bird dog pointing affected me.

It was existence-changing.

That shock...that frisson of awe...was only matched by one other revelation in my ongoing young life — an open-lipped kiss from my favorite cousin and tennis partner in another autumn.

Here is the scene.

I was eight, just two years in Georgia from a New Jersey apartment building, still stunned and numbed by my parents’ divorce, and I had gravitated to “male-bonding” with my paternal Uncle Pat.

Pat came by the “Big House” to see my grandfather often, and demonstrated his prowess at calling up a Bob White quail during the summer.

This magic was developed in thick shrubbery along the frail wood fence of a five acre fallow pasture. To a youngster from suburban Jersey, the sharp “Bob-White” of a bird in answer to the tremolo invitation of one high note from Pat’s lips gracefully slipping and rising in scale...well it was a hypnotic new experience. And when the Bob White cry came closer and seemed at my feet in a sprawling red leafed bush, it was startling.

My avian familiarity was with sparrows and starlings in East Orange, and Mrs. Goldstein’s nasty old parrot.

So now snoozy summer was gone and Pat arrived with the most magnetic and huggable canine I had ever seen. She was an almost blue tricolor setter with orange mouth markings and two punkin seeds on her eyes. Somehow she put more bite in the fading November afternoon just being there.

“Let’s see if we can find old Bob and the covey he’s been tending for Jenny,” Pat said, repeating a tutorial  fact.

“How?” I asked.

“Ol’ Kate’ll do it FOR us...watch...” And he released her over the fence, placed his little .410 on the opposite side and helped me over.

White oak, Spanish oak, tulip poplar and sumac rimmed the pasture’s far corner. There was a clump of heartbreakingly bright crimson-pink-to-orange sassafras scattered around. The setter ran far left, then far right, caught the fenceline and, head raised, began to slow, turned back toward the pasture and then, march...yes...

MARCH to an unseen barrier that defeated her, slammed her to halt in mid step.

She was poised with her off-forefoot bent. Frozen.

I lost my breathing. I believe if I had eaten that afternoon, I might have lost the meal. Racing through my brain here: “What’s the matter? Has she been struck into stone? What IS it?!

Pat had to nearly tackle me to keep me from grabbing and shaking Kate. He did and then bade me sit, and he walked up about nine quail in an exciting disorienting sound that I have never quite gotten “jaded” about.

She stayed while he shot a straggler, which was interesting, and which tasted good on buttered toast points that night...but the dead bird and its flavor faded.

I have been forever after, a Demi-Deity of sorts, reigning over my own paradise and it was all populated by gallant, beautiful dogs with magical gifts of location and locomotion and myriad colors and temperatures and storms and droughts that would never have anything to do with Death, for me.

Already, I was an addicted slave to William F. Brown’s Clarion Call, which I was to hear from his lips 20 years later:

“You can have more fun with a live quail (read “bird”) than with a dead one!!!”

If you’re new to Strideaway and to Bill Allen's wonderful words, check out his “The Unforgettables & Other True Fables” in the Strideaway Store! 

Strideaway welcomes the American Field Sporting Dog Association to the internet! We think this move will make a huge contribution to the field trial community. Strideaway updates will be announced on the site!

American Field Sporting Dog Association

Thanks to Brad Harter and crew for allowing all of us who were not able to attend the 2011 National Championship to relive the action!

On the Pleasant Hills Production website, I count 24 years (1988 - 2011) of National Championships captured by Brad and those who have assisted him! On behalf of field trialers across the country, Strideaway thanks Brad for nearly a quarter of a century of riding each brace of the National Championship through all kinds of inclement weather and the countless hours of editing to produce this astounding documentation of the country’s premier field trial event!

The 2011 National Championship video and the entire back catalog of videos from 1988 on are available at Pleasant Hill Productions 

Scott Chaffee and Champion Kalamity Seekah in 2000

I recently sat down with Michigan Pro, Pioneer Kennels’ Scott Chaffee and asked him a few questions about the changes he has seen in grouse trials and grouse dogs over the past 30 years that he has been competing. I was pleased to hear his positive remarks!

Thanks to Scott for taking the time out to do this interview. His bio is on our Contributor's page.

Click on the link below to listen to the Podcast Interview:

Interview_ScottChaffee.mp3

Mazie and I had hoped to have the new Strideaway website up by now but it is still in the design phase with funds needed to pay for the programming. We’ll get there! The new CMS site will offer much easier navigation to find archived articles and visuals and much better opportunities for our advertisers. We’re always looking for ideas for articles so long as they have a positive impact on the sport. I have back issues of the American Field from about 1957. Much of the content is still of great relevance and interest. But we also want to present more current thoughts about the sport from a broad spectrum of trialers from across the country. Thanks to all those who have already contributed so generously to Strideaway for the past three years. Please keep it coming!

We have some great articles in the works. If you have suggestions and ideas, please let me know.  

Broomhill, Manitoba

2011 marked my 5th visit to Broomhill and the 4th time I was there for some of the trials (Broomhill Open All-Age Classic, Manitoba Championship, Pelican Open All-Age Classic and the accompanying derby stakes). Last year I photographed almost all of the Manitoba Championship and Pelican Open All-Age Classic. I took some time out to run my own dog in the Pelican and judged both the John S. Gates Memorial Derby Classic and the Pelican Open Derby with Strideaway cohort Mazie Davis. What a blast that was! This year I spent some time on the prairies watching and working my own dogs so photographing the trials was more sporadic. Again, I had the privilege of judging the John S. Gates Memorial Derby Classic with Mazie. 

Weather, as we all know, is always a factor at field trials, especially wild bird field trials. Spring on the Manitoba prairies brought rain and more rain. Much of the land in Broomhill was too wet for farmers to get their crops in. Subsequently, the courses used last year had to be rerouted but still each had to utilize areas where nothing had been planted this season. The latter part of the summer was very dry. Combine that with especially high temperatures (in the 90s), clear skies and you get the conditions under which the trials were run. During the last day of the Pelican, fires nearby in Saskatchewan brought an acrid smoky haze that filled your nostrils. Image a dog trying to pick out the scent of birds. But the birds were there, ridden up, driven up and run up as I did when Joyce Harmon, dog wagon driver extraordinaire, spotted a large covey of chickens on the road ahead.

Chickens flying back into the corn located on the edge of alfalfa fields at the end of the first course.

They were in the exact spot where Patriote pointed not an hour earlier at the end of the 4th brace of the Pelican. When he was sent on, he searched the edge of the corn field he pointed towards but he did not establish point again. When I flushed the chickens trying to get a shot, they flew right back into the corn. Travis Gellhaus’ Zumbro Ace had a beautiful stand in that same area at the end of his race on the first day of the Manitoba Championship. I’ve never been there when chickens were not found in those alfalfa fields or the tree lines that separate them.

Chinquapin Spec, winner of the Manitoba Championship. Spec won the John S. Gates Memorial Derby Classic last year!

In the Shadow, winner of the Pelican Open All-Age Classic

Patriote pointing in the alfalfa towards the corn at the end of his run in the Pelican.

Travis Gellhaus attempting to flush for Zumbro Ace pointing in the same area several days earlier in the Manitoba Championship.

But dozens and dozens of old field trial reports confirm that conditions on the prairies have often been harsh. I’ve witnessed them myself — extreme heat and cold, wind and driving rain.

Several dogs whose braces I watched, I thought, put down tremendous prairie all-age races...the kind that keep you coming back to the prairies to witness again. And yes, a few more good finds would have increased the thrill. I look forward to judge William Smith’s upcoming report in The American Field. His judging partner was Ontario pro trainer John Reed. I first met John years ago at NSTRA trials in Ontario and Quebec. His summer training camp is south of Broomhill in Lyleton, MB. John has been coming to the trials for many years. This year he also ran a dog in the two derby stakes.

Patriote, Pelican Open All-Age Classic

Robin Gates handling Distant Shadow who can be seen in the background. Pelican Open All-Age Classic.

Colvin Davis watering Phillips Time Line at the end of his race in the Manitoba Championship. He was named Runner-Up.

Judges John Reed and William Smith

I heard rumors Travis and Jenny Gellhaus were coming well before I left Maine. The last time I saw Travis was in Marienville, PA at a grouse championship! And I had not met his wife Jenny before...it was great meeting her. Travis has had an interesting career and I am happy to see another young handler competing in the open All-Age game. Shannon Nygard showed up from Montana to watch Distant Shadow and a derby she has with Robin Gates. She also ran and placed another of her dogs in the Pelican Derby. It’s hard not to notice the increasing number of talented and dedicated women there are in field trials — developing young dogs, training, scouting and handling.

Shannon Nygard and Jenny Gellhaus

Grouse dog trainer, Joe McCarl had been to Broomhill a couple of times in past years, visiting from his camp in North Dakota both to train dogs and to watch the trials. This summer the Davis’s invited him to spend more time there training his string of dogs. Joe took my place judging the Pelican Derby as I had to leave the morning it began. He and I spent some time during the trials working dogs. Thanks to Robin Gates who sent us to some great spots behind his camp where the dogs found lots of chickens. 

Pelican Derby judges Mazie Davis and Joe McCarl.

I am designing on a book of my collection of photos from Broomhill from 2006 through 2011 that will be available some time before Christmas...I hope!!

Thunderbird Punch Buggy at the breakaway of the 4th brace of the Manitoba Championship.

Hunter Gates scouting for Shadow’s Perfection in the 6th brace of the Pelican.

Shadow Oak Bo won the Broomhill Open All-Age Classic held earlier in the summer.

To see more shots from my trip to the prairies this summer please visit my Photo Website. Click on Galleries in the navigation on the bottom of the screen to find 2011 Broomhill Trials. There are also a few new photos in Bird Dogs.

While researching another article in my stacks of old American Fields, my eye landed on the name of my friend Colvin Davis so I began to read. Two lines and I couldn’t pull myself away. Thanks to John Criswell, for bringing this great field trial episode to life...

Colvin Davis’ jaw was set. His mental conditioning harked back to the days when he rode the prairies with The Cap’n, John S. Gates, where quit was never an acceptable option. He had heard enough gallery gossip about the stake being over, that the leader on the board, Rebel Wrangler, was not movable, that he would be retired when the stake was over and he had his 11th championship.

Weather — rain and flooded creeks — had done nothing to soothe feathers of those who participated in the fourth Southland Open Championship and Derby Classic at the Blue Mountain Field Trial Grounds, tucked away in the Ouachita Mountains near Booneville, Ark. It started November 12 and took nine days to complete.

There had been no running on Sunday and Tuesday afternoon. The four braces remaining for Wednesday included two dogs from the Davis string, and Tuesday evening when talk turned to the depressing thought that it was futile, the taciturn Alabaman who Gates had considered a third son, in a low tone and firm cadence, said, “I’m not through.”

When the maneuvering for course was finished and the roster was considered as it would play out, Davis’ black-marked Rex’s Promise was written off. “I don’t have to worry about him, you’ll loose him on the breakaway.”

William L. Heard, Jr., and Cecil Rester’s 1990 Oklahoma Champion was on the first course, laden with standing water, and Colvin told his wife and scout, Mazie, “I’m going to have him when we make that first turn. I’m going to see which way he goes. Don’t lose him.”

The breakaway, fenced as best a course can be from a road and dense woods, goes a quarter to a service road, crosses to the left and opens into serious hunting. Davis’ concentration was as an Arnold Palmer about to putt for the stroke he needed to win the Masters. He turned “Mike ” across the course in front of him two or three times, and he had him at the first turn.

The tail-cracking pointer took the left fence edge, and only four minutes were gone when Mazie called point. Rex’s Promise found two more coveys, and he ran the fields with strength and obvious purpose. He went the length of the river to the horse bridge, and at pick up he was out of view.

The Davises started the search. The gate had been left open on the west end of the bridge across the boiling, full Petit Jean River, and tracks said he crossed onto the second course. Davis went after him — full tilt. The dog jumped out of the road into cover on the east side. First Davis went as far as water would allow to the north, came storming back past Judge John Thompson, who said the dog had eight minutes left, and Davis urged the black horse faster.

Faintly came the sound of three whistles from somewhere near Road 109. As time was running out, the man with his jaw set, came into view, Mike at heel.

Now, it was over, for the next braces changed nothing, and at the clubhouse Rex’s Promise officially became the Southland Champion. The cashier’s checks were handed out to Davis, and to Larry Huffman for Flamboyant, named to Honorable Mention. Huffman, going on to Conway, also took the check for Bill Hunt and Rebel Wrangler, the runner-up, but not before Davis wrote a note on the back.

Kneeling, from the left: Mazie Davis poses Rex’s Promise, the 1991 Southland Champion and Piper Huffman has Flamboyant, which was named to Honorable Mention. Rebel Wrangler had left the grounds a couple of days before. Standing, from left: President Perry Mikles, Judge Luke Weaver, Colvin Davis, Larry Huffman, and Judge John Thompson.

Report and photos courtesy of the American Field Publishing.

One hot day in May 1967, we were running at a field trial on the Lake Whitney (Texas) field trial grounds. This was a highly contested trial, albeit a 30-minute stake. The 1975 National Champion, Volcanic Express was being run by her trainer, the late Marion Gordon.

On “Peggy’s” breakaway, she went out of sight, straight ahead. When we reached the summit of the rise, there she stood on point with a covey located right out front. Marion kicked her birds up and took her on. On release, she went straight ahead, out of sight, over the next hill. She was found on point again, birds right up front. After this beautiful find, Marion turned her loose and again, she broke away directly to the front, out of sight. Once more, she had the covey pin-pointed right in front. After the third covey was flushed for her, her 30 minutes was ended. As we watched, pro trainer Gordon Hazelwood remarked to me, I’m sure glad there is still a second and third place left.”

Volcanic Express

Later in the stake, I asked Marion Gordon if he would scout for one of my dogs and he said, “Jack, I don’t know if I could call point for you or not.” Slightly offended, I got another scout, wondering why Marion would say that to me.

Some years later, we spent a couple of summers with him and his wife, Etta, on their training grounds in Canada and I got to know Marion very well. I learned what an honest, truthful person he really was. You always knew exactly where you stood with Marion. When we discussed that earlier Whitney trial, he told me that at the time, it had been a while since he had won a trial and he felt that he really needed that win. “That’s why I refused to scout for you,” he explained. Little did he know that with Peggy’s performance that day, we could still be running to this day and she would have won anyway.  

Volcanic Express, winner of the 1975 National Championship. She is shown with handler Marion Gordon and owners Dr. W. L. and Mrs. Sarah Kay Humphries. Standing: Hamlet Yarbrough Jr., Dr. Frank S. McKnight, W. A. (Dick) Dumas, Paul Walker, Parke C. Brinkley, Joe H. Hurdle, James M. Bryan and Charles F. Bryan.

On the line in the world’s greatest galleries and private collections hang paintings of upland game, wild fowl, big-game and gun-dogs with but three words that accredit them to immortality in the world of brush and canvas: “It’s an Osthaus.” And by such token Art has erected its own monument to one who shared God’s gifts unselfishly and gave clean greatness to Posterity’s equity in the Great Out-of-Doors.

Edmund Osthaus, destined to become a charter member of the National Field Trial Champion Association, was born in Hildesheim, Germany, his father a gentleman farmer of high caste, his mother an English gentlewoman of great beauty and charm. Manifesting an early natural fondness for outdoor life and childish admiration for the beauties of nature, his boyhood was replete with every opportunity for such expressions as sketching sheep in the pastures and deer and other game wandering through neighboring forests. Dreams by Edmund’s father that he should explore  the profession of architecture, yielded reluctantly to his lad’s penchant for art but resulted in a six month trial course at the Art Academy in Dusseldorf. So rapid was his progress that during ensuing years while his parents removed to the United States and became citizens, young Osthaus completed studies in the Atalier of Herr Christian Kroner, the most renowned painter of wild animals and forest scenery of his era. Thereafter Osthaus rejoined his parents in the United States and from 1885 until 1893 was chief instructor in the Toledo, Ohio, Academy of Fine Arts. By then, however, his standing as an artist had become one of National recognition. Fame and financial success beat a path to his studio’s door. (In 1892, he married Charlotte Becker with whom he had several children.)

A Huntsman Returning Home with Game

Thus enabled and magnificently physiqued, Edmund Osthaus roamed the North American continent as gunner and angler. To him such questings provided thrills of constant delight enhanced by the lights and colors with which nature touched and regilded the facets of his profession. Year in and year out Edmund Osthaus angled lakes, streams and the salt water while gunning in their multifold haunts prairie chickens and ruffed grouse, snipe and woodcock, and, with greatest ardor, his favorite the bobwhite quail ahead of sterling bird dogs.

Retrieving

Three English Setters

The Hunt

His kennel sheltered well-bred setters and pointers broken by himself to special excellence in field performance. Generous to a fault, he shared all luxuries afield with intimates who enriched his outings. Probably the most famous of his dogs was Ripsey, a descendant of the great pointer Rip Rap. She was a performer with winning ways along the eastern field trial circuit, and , handled by Osthaus himself, she accounted not only for many wins but doubled in duty as a magnificent gun dog.

Commissioner, A Champion English Setter, 1912

Pointer With Quail

Count Gladstone

Whether as a field trial judge, club-member or officer, councillor or guide, Edmund Osthaus’s efforts were invariably characterized by sound efficiency and common sense. Having a profound knowledge of practical gunning, field trial demands combining high ideals and moral courage to fearlessly declare his judgements, he was much sought after by field trial clubs to don the judicial ermine. This he often did and with invariable graciousness to one and all. His was, indeed, a fine enthusiasm and passionate love for the field trial dog reaching far beyond momentary considerations.

Christina

On the Scent, 1892 (Rip Rap, Maid of Kent)

Edmund Osthaus, born in August 5, 1858 died at his quail-hunting lodge in Marianna, Florida on January 30, 1928. His works appeared in The American Legion, Colliers, Cosmopolitan, Field and Stream, McCall’s, Redbook, and The Saturday Evening Post. His original paintings are highly sought after and some have fetched auction prices into the six figures. The Ames Plantation manor house in Grand Junction, Tennessee, is home to a large collection of Osthaus paintings and is open to the public by appointment.

Edmund Henry Osthaus

Thanks to all those who held steadfast and helped Susan Peters gain her rightful place in the Field Trial Hall of Fame. She will be officially inducted at the ceremony at the Bird Dog Museum in Grand Junction, TN prior to the 2012 National Championship.