About an hour east of Tallahassee, Florida, just a short hop from Thomasville, Georgia, in the heart of the Southern quail-hunting culture, Dixie Plantation has figured prominently in pointing-dog history for decades. There, the time-honored traditions of wild bobwhite quail, fine bird dogs, and field trials converge every year.

Home to the Continental Field Trials—the prestigious annual all-age championship and its companion derby feature—Dixie has been the proving grounds for generations of class pointing dogs. Recent acquisition of the property by Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy ensures that these valuable grounds with their wealth of bobwhite quail—and the sporting traditions upheld there for so long—will survive for years to come.

Each year, the Continental showcases the country’s top performance pointers and setters, dogs whose drive, speed, range, and endurance represent the highest degree of bird-dog standards. Particularly today, when wild quail venues are in short supply and opportunities for testing the mettle of dogs on native game are scarcer than ever before, Dixie Plantation and the Continental Trials have an important role in setting the bar for the ongoing improvement of the dog breeds. . . . –Barbara Teare

Author Barbara Teare takes Covey Rise deep into the historic Dixie Plantation and Continental Field Trial Club.  Still today, contenders in the qualifying portion of the Continental must run, hunt, and handle wild bobwhite quail to all-age requirements in a preliminary one-hour brace.  The names of the great dogs and handlers on this victory rolls ring down through the years like the dignified tolling of bells.  It takes an extreme bird dog to prevail in extreme circumstances on wild birds against a field of the season’s best.  These are the dogs that, having proved their merit beyond doubt.

The full feature “The Dixie Tradition” is published in the December-January 2016 issue.

Photo by: Chris Mathan