3 minute read
JOY
JOY
By Tommy Lee Jones
There’s been a lot of discussion about Joy recently and the expression on this Jack Russell terrier’s face in the photo says it all.
Not all terriers like to take part in races, but those that do enjoy it also experience that pure freedom of soaring, flying freely feet from the ground just before they hang a toe and come crashing to earth. After doing a cartwheel through the air and landing in a heap, they scramble through the hay bales at the finish line.
Dodging the human catcher’s hands, they often run back down the raceway, usually jumping the jumps in reverse, and go back into the starting gate, panting, tails wagging and waiting impatiently to go again.
The Jack Russell breed has always been a joyful warrior, a dog of exceptional ego with an even larger heart. I like those earlier terriers best, before they were recognized by the American Kennel Club.
The Jack Russells of the 1970s were chaos and mystery, and hunters of the first order. You could breed two terriers short of leg and coat, and half the litter would be long hair and leg. Their fearlessness to tackle a rat or a lion has never varied.
Almost fifty years ago, the first terrier trial was held at the Old Dominion Hunt field trial site. Master of Hounds Joan Hopewell had returned from her native England where she had attended a trial for a hunt over there.
Needless to say, their equipment was a little primitive. The starting gate was a large wooden box that loaded from the top. The front gate was one piece with a lever, so the gate swung up all at once. The windows in the front were covered with a large gap wire that caught the teeth of more than one terrier as the gate came up. No disasters but close.
The lure was a fat fox tail claimed from a not so lucky road kill on a string that rolled up on the rear wheel of an upside-down bike. The bouncing tail kept causing the string to pop off the wheel and snag, often resulting in multiple dog fights.
My friend, Gus Forbush, and I raced our terriers at Old Dominion. Gus is a mechanical genius, a welder and hunted with Casanova at that time.
Over one winter years ago, he used spare parts lying around his shop to make a starting gate and a wheel that we use to this day. The gate was metal, individual gates that swung out when they opened and even had a bell, just like at the horse racetracks. The wheel was wide and had guides, so the string stayed straight and didn’t snag.
Robert Palmer, a member of the Casanova Board of Governors, built a set of jumps, a miniature hurdle, post and rail and a chicken coop. In June, 1977, we held the first Casanova Terrier Trial at the kennel in an old grove of oak trees.
More than 100 terriers competed. The rest, as they say, is history.
Tommy Lee Jones, long time huntsman for the Casanova Hunt.
