You are as likely to see an HPR as a baseball cap at a smart shoot, says David Tomlinson. So, if you’ve done the training, how do you get to work your well-trained continental pointer?
OLD taboos take years to die in the shooting field. Many decades passed before over-and under were accepted and if you go farther back you will discover similar prejudices against hammerless guns, even yellow labradors. Of course, some prejudgments still remain. Turning up at a smart shoot wearing a baseball cap is hardly acceptable and nor is having a continental gundog sitting beside you at your peg. In the past 20 years, I can recall only seeing one HPR being used as a peg dog. It was a weimaraner and acquit itself satisfactorily. I’m sure that if it hadn’t its owner would never have been invited again.
It’s some 70 years since the first German shorthaired pointers appeared on shoots in the UK and, since then, those pioneering hunter, pointer retrievers have been joined by a host of other continental breeds. The choice today is considerable. Would you like a lovely russet-coloured vizsla from Hungary or, perhaps, a big white spinone from Italy? If neither appeals, there’s always the Spanish water dog, a game little animal that looks like a sporty poodle. I like the Brittany, the most spaniel-like of the pointing breeds, while I’ve seen some great work by Korthals griffons.
Bu hikaye The Field dergisinin April 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Field dergisinin April 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
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