Advice for the Forlorn
You’re feeling low as a snake
Cannot shake your blues
There’s one sure cure
If you’re a bird dog man
And here is what you do
Load two smooth mounts
In your trailer
Change the oil in your truck check the air in your tires
Tell your wife (and/or significant other)
You are going South (to sell the horses if she can’t stand the truth or the truth if she can)
Drive to Lake City, Florida
And take 247 South West to O’Brien
Find the sign above the gate on the left
Reads Chinquapin Farms
Drive in a quarter mile
You will see a flat steel pointer
White with a black head
Paper Rosie
Joe Hicks won the Masters with her
Then she led the shooting string
Joe trained the dogs
Then managed the place
Slade Sikes is his successor
You are at Chinquapin Farms
Acres of rolling sand over lime rock
Covered with wire grass
Beneath scattered pines
Quail thrive here in
Big wild coveys
Fed year round
Corn or millet
Plentiful but elusive
Stealthy hard to relocate
Reluctant to fly quick to run
In all directions
They can shut down
So they can’t be found
Where they go
No one knows
Some swear in the ground
Down gofer tortoise holes
Beside Paper Rosie
Stands the new clubhouse
Attached to a horse barn
Forming a T with a long top
Behind the barn
Stands the new kennel
Beneath a hip roof
Housing in splendor
A shooting string
All pointers
Strong in the blood
Of dogs that have won here
Over seven decades
Back to the days
Of A Rambling Rebel
And Evolution
Omen and Bisco Buck
Races run here
Have been epic
Burned in the memory
Of all who saw them
The courses are varied
Some flat like “27”
Some sloping like the Second
Some both like Swallow ‘Em Bottom
And Lookout Ridge
All give a strong dog
With a smart handler
And a good scout
A chance to win
Win a generous purse
And lasting glory
But to win here
Your dog must be true all-age
Heat resistant
Strong nosed
Acclimated to sandy land
On Loncalla here for practice
Whether you come to compete
Or like me to watch
You will be welcomed
Fed lunch every day and one night
Fresh ham cooked by Ted and Howard
And libations
Each morning you will gather at eight
On the west side where the breakaway
Goes down a hissing pipeline
Then forms a P through piney woods
For forty minutes the braces will hunt
Five before lunch and four after
Or if it’s hot three and three
Then the judges will pick those
To go an hour
At the end they will pick
A Champion and a Runner-Up
As they have every year since ‘69
Save ‘94 when Bernie pulled a red card
That almost cost the sport
Its best hour stake
Here have been loosed
Many great Champions
Handled by men hardened
By the troubles of the road
Men like Bill Rayl and son Fred
George Moreland Jr. and son George III
John Rex Gates and brother Robin
Pete Hicks and son Joe
Freddy Epp and Roy Jines
Andy Daugherty and Ricky Furney
And many more
All thanks to the generosity of one man
Over decades never wavering
A man who loves the sport
And its players good and evil or likely both
A friend of every man who ever
Snapped a check cord to a collar
Climbed aboard a handling horse
And blew the whistle
Ted Baker
About the Author : Tom Word
Visit authors website | View more articlesTom Word is a lawyer who represents individuals about managing their assets and for amusement writes fiction and non-fiction about bird dogs and humans obsessed with them.
About the Artist : Leah Brigham
Visit artist websiteAfter graduating from Millersville University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors of Science in Art Education, Leah began teaching Art to inner city Middle School students in Houston and later Dallas, TX. Leah has shared with her students her passion for art and nature. This passion has sustained her and continued throughout her life in the form of painting and drawing.
Leah was introduced to American Field Horseback Field Trails and has been able to experience the excitement of seeing her own dog, competing for the National Championship at Ames Plantation in Grand Junction, TN ...standing on point, head and tail held high. This has inspired her to create works of art depicting dogs and the wildlife associated with the sport and hunting.
