St. Hubert’s Field Trial 2025
Highlights from 2025 Saint Hubert’s Trial
Last month, Cedar and I packed up the van and drove down to the H. Cooper Black field trial grounds in Cheraw, South Carolina to compete in the St. Hubert’s Trial, hosted by The Bird Dog Society.
There were 4 classes:
Pointer Hunter
Pointer Trialer
Flusher Trialer
Flusher Trialer
In both of the Trialer’s classes, your dog had to be steady to wing, shot, and fall. Naturally, we entered the Hunter class, where your pup was allowed to break.
After a hilariously embarrassing run in the field the first day. . . (bustin’ & catchin’ birds, me missing the one bird I had an opportunity to shoot, and almost dying from trying to keep up with a fast-af-lil-pup sprinting across the rolling hills) Cedar and I had a nice little pep talk about the differences in flushers & pointers. She tried to give me a pep talk on the importance of cardio-fitness, but I didn’t want to listen.
The next morning we headed to the pines and it was like she was a completely different dog. Holding so steady, letting me flush and connect, and then retrieving the birds. . . color me impressed. We went on to take home runner up champion that day.
I have a theory on this. . . the majority of our hunting is on woodcock in the woods. We rarely hunt preserves anymore and we haven’t been out west yet. She’s only just turned 2 and her first season we spent a lot of time at a local preserve (and in the woods) and she realized quickly that she can catch pen-raised birds. That season we weren’t focused on steadying her, just letting her be a puppy and have fun. I wonder if she thinks “field = dumb birds = play time” and “woods = smart birds = hold still and be a good pointer.”
When we weren’t competing, we spent our time documenting the weekend’s events and getting to know a lot of kind, dog-loving, folks. (My kind of people.)
Here are the highlights from the weekend. (View the full gallery through the buttons below.)
St. Hubert’s trials are common in Europe but relatively new to the U.S.
Focused more on actual hunting and dog work, this competition is designed to evaluate both a hunter and their bird dog as a team in a simulated hunting scenario.
Unlike typical field trials that focus solely on the dog’s performance, Saint Hubert’s Trials judge the overall sporting skills, teamwork, and ethical hunting practices of the handler and their dog.
Thank you to the sponsors, OnX, Upland Gun Company, and Eukanuba, and our judges:
Nick Adair, host of the Gun Dog It Yourself Podcast,
Nick Larson, host of the Birdshot Podcast,
Jake Bartells, Senior NAVHDA Judge,
Bob Owens, owner of Lone Duck.
Special shoutout to the Bird Dog Society team, Terry Ann Fernando of The Accidental Bird Dog and all our other bird planters, and Grayson Guyer of Lost Highway Gundogs, (for hosting the first one in 2022 and being the mastermind behind bringing this type of trial to our area.)
