Merry meanderings #8 Power napping

1/11/14 Woodhall shoot "Do I have to put up with this?"

1/11/14 Woodhall shoot "Just havin a power nap*

 "Any workin' dog will tell you that theirs is a funny old game.
Bushbeatin' is the strangest of all. Imagine havin' a whole week of exercise in one day - and then imagine that exercise includes covering all kinds of ground and, often, water too. There's a lot of sittin around and waitin' it's true but after the waitin' comes the runnin'. Now, I has been lucky to work on some big Shoots in my 7 seasons; some days there were only one or two of us spaniels in the beating line. We had to find birds in the thickest wood, bog, bramble and hedgerow with big ponds and deep dykes & ditches.

8/11/14 Langton shoot: "Found a handy bag.."

 "We might do anythin' from 5-8 drives in a workin' day in every kind of weather. A typical drive would be about a half hour. That's a lot of hard huntin'. And then there's the Boss peepin on her whistle tellin me where to go & what to do so a chap has to keep his wits about 'im. Can't just do what I like....
At the end of the drive we beatin dogs sometimes has to 'find' the birds what have got shot & lost along the way. There are pals who just pick up but they's often well away from us.
"Anyway, the long & short of it is that a bushbeatin' dog is a very busy dog. And you gotta grab your rest where you can otherwise a chap'd never last the course.
"On most shoots we get carried from drive to drive by some kind of wagon - we do call it the beater's bus. Mostly they's wobbly, rustic old horsetrailers or tractor-trailors what do jerk and joggle all over the show.

21/11/13 Mareham shoot: "Power nappin..."

"Very early in my career I learned that this was the only place a chap could get a bit of shut-eye. She do call it my power nap. Every time I get on the beater's bus (or a car boot, cos sometimes that what the wagon is) I does shut my eyes and drop off till the wagon do stop. Mostly on my legs cos then I can stand square and brace myself. Peeps do always larf at me; say I's like a 'puter with a stand-by switch.  Well, 'tis sort of like that cos the moment that the wagon do stop I wakes up with a start and is ready to go again as if it were the start of the day. Sometimes it's handy if there's somethin' to prop my head up on; a bag or a knee do come in very handy. Mostly I'd just shimmy close to the end of the wagon, stand square and drop off. Those little power naps were what did keep me goin...

01/02/14 Woodhall Shoot; Cocking Day: Resting a weary head