06/14/2022
From everything I am hearing the UKC is planning on continuing with the 2022 Hall of Fame program much like it has been handled in the past by the American Field.
This year, as in many past years, there will be a number of very deserving people and dogs nominated and their attributes will be shared on social media sites as well as in the new UKC Field monthly magazine. Being a subscriber to that publication will no doubt be required to cast a vote for your favorites.
In my humble opinion, what constitutes a deserving dog involves at least two important qualities. The dog's win record, especially when it involves winning major championship trials with large numbers of entries. When these wins have occurred on wild birds on prairie type venues as well as southern planation type venues. The second quality is that dog's production record especially in the case of male dogs where the opportunity for many progeny can be achieved. Female has a disadvantage in this category. The percentage of progeny with wining records also becomes important.
With those attributes in mind I would like voters to consider "In The Shadow", (Buster), Carl and Diane Bowman's family member winning the 2010 National Championship for induction in the 2022 Field Trial Hall of Fame.
While this may not be the best way to do this, after Buster won in a memorable performance in 2010 I wrote this piece called "Buster's Edge" for a magazine called the "Field Trial Magazine." I would like to share that story along with a couple of favorite pictures.
BUSTER"S EDGE!
Buster may have had an edge in winning the National Championship:
By: Brad Harter
No, not the edge most people think about. The fix as they sometimes say was not in. No one had the judges in their back pocket nor had the drawing been rigged. Buster’s edge was much different, and his story began a long time ago, before Buster was ever born.
All the pieces that would lead to Buster (In The Shadow) winning the 2010 National Championship began on a fateful day years ago when a racehorse trainer from Kentucky named Carl Bowman was bird hunting on a lease in Western Oklahoma. A dog trainer named Chuck Taylor was in the same area and one day he asked Carl if he wanted to watch a young dog named Joe that he was working for Bob Sheldon. When Chuck turned Joe lose that memorable afternoon, he just seemed to glide across the country. Then he would disappear over the rise and be found standing on point in a regal, majestic pose. Days later Carl couldn’t shake the image of this dog off his mind. There was something unique in this liver and white pointer, the same kind of thing that Carl had seen in young racehorses, and they were the ones that later on became great winners and producers.
A few years would pass but Carl still remembered that afternoon with Chuck and Joe: the grace with which the dog ran, the way Joe hungered for more country and then his arresting style on point. These where images Carl just couldn’t forget. Carl would learn that this dog, bred and raised by Bob Shelton, was registered as Joe Shadow. Carl would also learn that Bob had sold Joe and that he was being campaigned in the string of Robin Gates, a very successful all-age trainer from South Georgia. Joe was also regularly appearing in the American Field where he was winning some of the premier “wild bird” trials in the country like the Continental, the Florida Championship twice.
Carl’s experience and success as a thoroughbred racehorse trainer had taught him that great sires often pass on their qualities to their female offspring, rather than to their sons. This had been true so often in the racehorse world. An example that came to mind was the great Secretariat. That immortal racehorse had passed his greatest qualities on to his daughters who when bred to great sires would pass many of these qualities on to some of their sons. Carl’s belief was that if this was true in racehorses, it could also be true with bird dogs. Some of the old-time dog trainers confirmed this belief.
At this point in his life Carl was avid bird hunter, but not yet a field trail addict. He appreciated the fact that field trials were the proving grounds to breeding better bird dogs and he knew he wanted to contribute to that end. Carl formulated a plan and that first involved locating some females, if they existed, out of that dog he had watched in a workout a few years back in Oklahoma. Carl started his search to buy a female for breeding by calling Robin Gates. It took a few phone calls, but Carl persisted. When he finally reached Robin, he was told there were three females out of Joe and a Silverwood bitch that could be purchased. Carl didn’t hesitate one second. Silverwood had been the other great dog that had always captured Carl’s attention when he read about him in the American Field. Like Joe Shadow, Silverwood had made his mark in the field trial game by winning the same great “wild bird” trials just as Joe had. Carl decided he needed to purchase all three females. One female, who had broken her tail as a pup, ended up with Carl’s veterinarian friend Dr. H. R. Doerr. Dr Doerr was a bird hunter, and the tail didn’t matter to him. Carl kept the other two females. Unfortunate situations ended up in neither of Carl’s two females being able to be bred. That left only Dr. Doerr’s female to fulfill Carl’s plan.
When Dr. Doerr called Carl one day to report that his female was coming in season, he wanted to know what male dog Carl thought a good cross for this Joe Shadow female would be. Carl had thought about this for some time. From what he had seen from both production records and performance, Miller’s White Powder was Carl’s first choice. Carl’s belief was history would show White Powder to be one of the most proponent sires in the last few decades. When you realize that in 2010 alone, White Powder was either the sire or grandsire of nearly half the dogs running in the National Championship, it certainly supports Carl’s belief.
The mating was successful. When the time to whelp the pups arrived there were some complications requiring a cesarean surgery to save the six puppies. Born to Doerr’s Claire’s Shadow on March 17th, 2004, were 4 males and 2 females.
The pups stayed at the clinic and were handled daily by the clinic staff. As soon as the pups were weaned, Carl showed up every day to take the entire litter out for walks on a farm near Louisville, KY. Sometimes he managed this trip twice a day since his work at the horse training barn often ended by mid morning. Carl’s devotion to the task was so great that some people began to tease Carl, telling him that he was wearing these pups out. The workouts were always short but also fun. The farm Carl was using he had managed since the early 90’s and by this time it was covered up with wild quail. By the time the pups were big enough to get through the high grass, the birds were pairing off and they were everywhere. The pups were having a ball; some were pointing butterflies while others were exploring the country. All of them were learning to go to the front and to stay with Carl and his wife Dianne. These daily workouts with plenty of wild birds to find, point and chase were an edge that few puppies ever get. And the best part of this whole experience was that these pups were getting out in the field with a man who was doing this because it was his passion, not just a job.
There was one pup that caught the early attention of both Carl and Dianne. This pup had captured their heart from the very beginning. He was different, he had an air about himself, and Carl just could not let this one go. They named him Buster and the subtle differences between Buster and his litter mates became more apparent each day. Every pup would later turn out to be great bird dogs and two in particular would go on to have a distinguished field trial career, but Buster was the one that had to end up as Carl and Dianne’s companion and house dog.
While all the other pups would point the wing and play, just as all puppies will do, Buster had other ideas. He had little interest in pointing the wing on a fishing pole. Buster was more interested in exploring the world around him. When he ran with his brothers and sisters he was almost always in the front. Buster seemed obsessed with being in the lead and getting to new country first. Carl remembers to this day the very spot where Buster pointed his first wild quail. Carl had a camera with him that day and he captured the special moment. The camera was out of focus but that first pointed wild quail was captured as seen in
Within a few weeks all the other pups had found homes. All the pups had been named, each had been given special attention and all showed the promise that would become their destiny, but Carl & Dianne had agreed, they knew they could only keep one and they knew that one would have to be Buster.
Once he was home at the Bowman house, Buster quickly became the constant companion of both Carl and Dianne. When Dianne first placed Buster in her car, he found that he had an older traveling companion, a female pointer that was Diane’s house dog. Buster immediately saw how this female behaved and he immediately sat in his seat as if he had been born there. House breaking Buster was easy; in fact, Buster took to everything almost immediately, evidence that he was blessed with great intelligence. With a free rein of the yard and house, walks every day where he had the chance to find and point wild quail and the daily trips to Starbucks, the bank, and the racetrack; Buster had fallen head long into bird dog heaven.
Carl had learned long ago that in the world of racehorses, the beginning is often most important part. Much of Carl’s success as a trainer involved early groundwork with his young racehorses. Lots of groundwork coupled with repetition and consistency worked in horses. Carl believed the same principles should apply with bird dogs. Carl was determined to give Buster every early opportunity he could manage that first summer. Yard work was fun, and Buster soon had heeling, coming when called and most importantly Buster was whoa broke. He would stand posing anywhere that Carl asked him to whether it was the tail gate of the truck, the middle of the flower bed or in front of his dog bowl filled with feed.
Pleasing both Carl and Dianne were high on Buster’s priority list. Play time, rides around town and plenty of petting were the rewards Buster received for doing everything right. Buster knew his name and no matter where he might be knapping, in his room, in the yard or in the house; coming always meant that something good was going to happen and that often included a milk bone.
Every day when they were out in the field, Buster was proving to Carl that his breeding was coming to the surface. Buster was especially bold; he naturally ran to the front, and he had an unusual knack for finding birds. The next decision Carl would have to make was who he should select to send Buster to for his final training and polishing.
That question ended up pretty easy to answer. It would be the same man who had taken Buster’s grandsire sire and his great grandsire on the female side to the heights of their careers, the same man who knew the keys to the Shadow line of dogs… and the same man who was one of the game’s most respected trainers and handlers on the all-age circuit. That man would be none other than Robin Gates, the youngest son of the immortal “Captain” John S. Gates. When Carl called Robin and told him of his decision to send him north that second summer, he asked Robin if he could be getting Buster into too many birds and causing a problem. It seemed Buster was always on point and his knack for finding wild birds was just getting better every day. Robin’s comment was simply this “don’t worry, that would be no problem, just let him keep finding and pointing all the birds he wants, Hunter and I will teach him to run the country when we get him to the prairies”
When Robin first turned Buster loose in the field, he immediately saw the same potential and the same natural talent this young student possessed. It was exactly what Carl and Dianne had seen from the very beginning. Robin and his son Hunter would give Buster every opportunity available by taking their young pupil north to the Canadian Prairies for his first derby summer. Nothing in the world beats the prairie for teaching a dog with all of Buster’s natural talents to use the wind and the go to distant objectives. Buster already knew how to use his nose; it would be the prairies that would teach him everything else.
For Buster, the life he was living had become the thing that most bird dogs must dream of as they lay peacefully in their kennels. Springtime meant being home for three months with Carl and Dianne. It was vacation time and everything Buster had known as a puppy; the early morning trips to the track with Carl, Starbucks and the bank with Diane, free run of the house and yard, a box with all his own toys and a bed all his own in a room where he could sleep as long as he wanted. Life for any dog could just not get any better than that!
Midsummer meant going to the prairies and to some of the best training grounds in all of the north. The mornings were cool, and the country was covered up with wild birds. These were the exact same grounds that Captain John, John Rex, Robin, and their long-time neighbor Colvin Davis had developed so many great ones on for more than half a century. It would also become the place Buster would learn to love, just as much as his farm in Kentucky and the plantations in South Georgia.
Fall meant a return to Georgia, the plantations, and the piney woods. This was country with a mild climate, lots of quail to point and people that truly appreciated all the talents that had been bred into Buster. Some days Buster got to run against his brother, some days a few quail were shot for him and on the best days Carl would show up to watch him compete against bird dogs from all over the country.
When Buster was entered in a field trial, he didn’t always win but even when he was beat, Buster always made his trainer and his owner proud. His wins did come often; in fact, he won the first four derby stakes he ever competed in when he was a derby on the prairies. I vividly remember one of those wins when I had the pleasure to judge Buster at Mortlach. By the time Buster was three years old he had managed to qualify for his first trip to the National Championship in Grand Junction, Tennessee with a convincing win of the prestigious Florida Championship. To date Buster has fourteen placements, eight of them are first and three are championships.
Buster’s first trip to Ames was the same learning experience that it is for most young dogs. Different grounds, different footing, a slower pace and the sometimes twisting, winding courses at Ames where not what Buster was used to. Experience comes from every opportunity and Buster was learning the ropes, just as he had when he was a pup running on that Kentucky farm with his brothers and sisters.
In 2009 Buster re-qualified for the National once again, this time by being named the runner-up in the Kentucky all-age Championship. By this time Buster was more mature. He had with a better understanding of what a three-hour brace was all about. Buster hadn’t slowed down, nor had he been ground down to make him handle better. His amazing speed was still there but he had learned how to apply himself a little better in this west Tennessee quail country. His three-hour performance in the 2009 National was very impressive. His first two covey finds came early in that first hour. In both cases, Buster beat his brace mate to these birds forcing the other great dog which he was braced with to back in each situation. He handled well that year, showed to the front and his internal clock had been set to check in on Robin a little more often. Buster had also learned that birds feed on the edges in this country. If they aren’t where you first look, you just start digging a little deeper. Finding the front was always easy for Buster, even when the course made a sharp turn. Staying to the front and going with his handler were the lessons Carl and Dianne had taught him early in life.
Buster’s solid performance in 2009 might have been good enough to win but he had a bad break that year. Digging in deep when birds had moved off the edges put Buster in a place where Robin and the judges rode by him without seeing him pointed. Buster was on course but just out of view. When he didn’t show to the front Hunter was sent to look for him. When Buster was found on point to the rear Hunter called at the top of his lungs. The wind was wrong, and the distant call of point could not be heard. When Hunter realized that no one was coming he flushed the birds and brought Buster on to the front. It was a bad break for Buster, but it is all a part of game of field trials. Had the distant call of point been heard, had Buster not suffered that long absence while lost on point, had Buster added one more covey of quail to his score sheet, maybe the big steps and all the silver would have been his in 2009. Buster had still finished that year and with plenty of strength to spare. Buster had proven to Robin and Carl that he could go the three hours and that he also knew how to find birds at Ames. All Buster would need to do was to re-qualify for 2010, come back and get a few good breaks and the title would be his.
John Gardner always said it took a good dog three years to put everything together needed to win the National. If you look at past winners and their records at Grand Junction, John’s theory seems to hold a lot of water. Recent winners like Funseeker’s Rebel, Whippoorwill Wild Agin and Lester’s Snowatch would confirm that theory.
The following year the many edges that have been part of Buster’s life would once again play into the picture. By the end of March, Buster would come home again to Louisville, Kentucky. Dianne would take his orange field trial collar off and place his Louisville home, brown collar on. Buster knew exactly what that meant. The brown collar was all about rides around town where everyone knew who he was, a sunroof to view from, the drive-in window at the bank where the girls always send out a dog treat, if they somehow forgot, all Buster had to do was bark to remind them. It also meant trips to the nail parlor where the girls thought he was something special and Starbucks, where he was a regular. In the early morning before dawn, it meant a trip to the racetrack at Church Hill Downs with Carl. Home also meant his own box of toys and that special towel that he could always get Carl to play tug-a-war with. And then there was the farm, the same one where he had pointed his first wild quail. Carl has a four-wheeler kept at the farm and Buster gets to road from it a little different than most dogs. It’s not about pulling with Carl; it’s mostly just about running fast. Workouts will vary in length depending on the time of day and the heat, but they are always fast and then there is the ice bath at the end to cool him down, something that few bird dogs get but most racehorses know all about.
Fifteen, twenty, sometimes even twenty-five miles per hour is the speed Carl likes to let Buster run. Carl believes that speed is what builds lungs and the long muscles needed to cover lots of ground. Racehorses are trotted, jogged, and then allowed to sprint. They are never put in harness and hooked to a heavy sled. Since you want a bird dog to run and not pull a sled, why would you train them any differently? One of Carl’s early mentors was Ferrell Miller who believed you play like you have practiced. Roading at a field trial pace just made sense to Carl.
While many trainers’ road bird dogs more for the pulling effect, some Veterinarians like Dr. Terry Terlep believe that the pulling action may actually contribute to blown ACLs. The verdict is not in on that theory, but what Carl does know for certain is that “speed roading” has worked for Buster. When you watch Buster run in a trail, rarely do you see his tongue hanging out, rarely is he ever breathing hard. Maybe that is why he points so many birds. Breathing through the nose and never being winded surely has some advantages.
One more edge comes in July when Buster heads north to the prairies with Robin and Hunter. Buster is always in the best of shape; in fact, he is never out of shape. With many hundreds of miles in conditioning and the best of nutrition, Buster leaves Louisville for the prairies within a few ounces of his competition weight. Buster is ready to go to work the very first day that training starts.
Buster’s life at home is the very best any dog can have. Life with Carl and Dianne in Louisville is really a vacation of sorts, something we all need if we are expected to perform at the top of our game. When July comes and the vacation is over, Buster is ready and anxious to go back to work.
There is one more major edge that Buster has that cannot be underestimated nor overlooked. That edge is the team of Robin and Hunter Gates. The Gates team is really Buster’s extended family. Buster is just as happy to see them when they come through Kentucky to pick him up in early July as he is to come home to Carl and Diane in March.
Buster really has two separate lives. When he is home in Louisville Buster wears his brown collar. Then it is all about the rides around town, free run of the yard and house, his box of toys and lots of play time. When Robin and Hunter pick him up in July the orange field trial collar goes back on and then it’s a brand-new game. It now becomes all about workouts with plenty of birds and then there are those great competitions, the ones where Buster gets to show his speed and beat all those other dogs to the birds.
If you are still wondering what edge Buster might have had to win the 2010 National. It should be pretty clear by now! Do you have to be a kennel dog to win the big trials? Can a house dog with all the luxuries in life be competitive? Buster’s outstanding career may begin to answer those questions
At five years of age, Buster has not yet reached his prime. With his unique life and his many special edges, Buster will certainly be a dog to reckon with for many years to come. Carl, Dianne, Robin, and Hunter will make sure of that!
