When I first knew Bob Thompson, we hunted horseback for released quail on Bob's farm and neighboring property in southeastern Ohio.  A former retriever and pointing dog field trialer, Bob loved a dog that would run in the classic, original manner of this country's Shooting Dog stakes.  Willie was the epitome of Bob Thompson's ideal - a fast dog with plenty of bottom who applied himself intelligently, handled well enough to stay in contact, high and stylish on point...and one of the most uncanny bird finders he or I ever saw.  One of the best days we shared with Willie was an early season outing in which he located three coveys of quail, then slipped down into the woods on the east edge of the farm to pin the only ruffed grouse we ever moved on this tract of land.

I met Bob Thompson in his barnyard, late summer of 1986. He was riding in on Snowball, the steady shooting pony he'd bought from Field Trial Hall of Famer Tate Cline, roading Willie in harness to condition him for the bird season.   I still own Willie's old bell, the clapper hunted out of it, his roading harness, and the saddles Bob Thompson rode.  

Snowball's name was misspelled by me in the Quail Unlimited essay that follows.  His grave is along the old oil well road north of the barn and marked with a sign bearing this simple, eloquent epitaph: "A Good Horse."