My Life As A Field Trial Reporter
I embarked on the second purely by accident, an accident that brought me great pleasure. The accident was meeting Ted Baker on a driven red grouse shooting trip to Braemar, Scotland, where I was guest of a grateful client who had sold his company. Ted was one of nine "guns" in the shooting party, as was I. This was my one and only such shooting party, and a most memorable one- we shot for five days on moors across the river Dee from Queen Elizabeth's Balmoral Estate.
After returning home to Virginia from Balmoral, I wrote an account of our shoot and sent copies to all the other eight guns. Based on that, Ted Baker invited me to come report his Florida Open All-Age Championship. I had never reported a field trial. Several years passed, but I finally made it in 1995. I never missed reporting another. My second career ended in 2022 when the Florida Championship ran for the last time ( Ted died in April 2022).
My first report of the Florida Championship prompted many more invitations which I accepted. For the Quail Championship Invitational (ten years), the Open Free-For-All (several years) the Continental Derby and All-Age, the Amateur Free-For-All, the North Dakota Classics, the Alabama Open Shooting Dog Championship, the National Amateur Pheasant Championship, The Oklahoma Open Championship , and others.
The invitations reflected my willingness to come and report and at my own expense mainly, more than an appreciation of my journalism. But I truly loved the chance to watch good dogs in competition on beautiful grounds and to be with fellow bird dog enthusiasts.
My second profession prompted a third, writing fictional stories about bird dogs, bird hunting and field trials. Self published and available online from LuLu Press or Strideaway, titles include None Held Back, The Ninth Pup, A Little Competition, The Curmudgeons (short stories) and Gentlemen, Let 'Em Go, a novel of field trials. Also available , The Price of Admission, a collection of essays about admired individuals from my lawyer life. You can also find free my writings on my blog at Tomwordbooks.com or on GunDogCentral.com
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.
Related Aritlces
Two Heroes - by Tom Word
They are two heroes , both Pennsylvanians, both Vietnam combat veterans. Both are pointing dog professionals. One is a Marine, one is Army. They both saw much combat, and that has had its inevitable consequences, physical and mental.
Advice on a Dog Sale - By Tom Word
Ben Reach religiously followed a policy, preached to him by his father, not to get involved in law suits involving dogs. But ironically, he was asked for advice on bird dog matters constantly. This was because Ben had many friends in the bird dog world and was trusted. He had judged trials over many years and never shown favoritism. Nor did he ever decline to try to help a bird dog professional trainer-handler in distress, and there was never a shortage of them. The profession was by its nature highly risky.
