To most people rabbit hunting is a morbid idea. Just the thought of shooting little cute furry bunnies is so wrong. Well for me, it is one of my favorite pastimes. Rabbit hunting can be done in several ways; you can choose the still hunting, tracking, trapping, or hunting with hounds, such as beagles. I raise beagles and train them to hunt rabbits, in the off season I take my dogs to field trails. Field trials are like a sporting event for beagles, they beagle will be drawn into a pack of hounds and they will be ran and judged on how they perform.

On a hot, dry morning in July, I was up before dawn. I walked in to the club house and entered my dog Thunder in the fifteen inch male class. As my nerves got the best off me as I went to the truck to prepare Thunder for the full day ahead. Thunder got drawn in the second pack, as the first pack went into the field I got Thunder collared up and ready to go. As I was being pulled into the pen I knew Thunder was ready to go, he has always been a strong, hard hitting hound. The judges called role and as I answer for Thunder, I knew he smelled one on the ground. When the judges told us to release the hounds, I knew where Thunder was headed. In about one minute I heard Thunders deep bawl voice. At that very moment I knew he keep up the work he would be hard to beat. As the first series went on and Thunder was on fire, he was so ahead of the pack he would over run the check and be back in time to pick up the sent again. When the judges finally whittled down the pack to three dogs, you could tell that the dogs were dead and so were the judges.

The judges were so tire, in fact, they whittled down the first series to a winner’s pack. After lunch, we ran the winner’s pack. Thunder turned it on! Just like before in the first series, he burnt up the competition outlasting all the other hounds. After the judges had cut down the winners pack down to five dogs, they picked up the hounds. Then, the waiting began. Nerves set in because Thunder had two wins previously and only needed this one to be a Champion. As all the other competing hounds’ men set around wandering who would win, the judges came out and announced the winners. NBQ (fifth place) was first, no Thunder. Fourth place, no Thunder. Third place, no Thunder. Second place, no Thunder. As they announced the first place hound I knew Thunder had won and officially finished as a field champion.

As the day ended, I knew the long drive home was definitely worth it with a field champion in the back of the truck. Field trialing at its best when you have the trophy, the ribbon and most importantly the newly crowned Field Champion.