A lot of folks are enjoying summer vacations and weekends at the lake, but kids and parents have begun counting the days until school begins. While they’re still planning last-minute adventures, they’re also concerned about getting ready for the upcoming academic year. Sports teams, cheerleaders and marching bands are getting warmed up, building upon their skills and stamina in preparation for what will soon be expected of them.
Hunters and anglers should take this idea of preparation into consideration. I once knew a young man who had a very active job. Each year, he looked forward to his trip west to hunt big game, something he’d started doing with his father.
He’d noticed that over the years, his father had slowed down more than a step or two and expressed that concern to him. His dad, a wise man, explained he wasn’t losing a step — he was just taking his time and enjoying the hunt.
His father loved hunting in the West and northern Michigan. He owned bird dogs and carried the same rifle he’d bought in his 20s to hunt mule deer and pronghorns. He’d built a lot of fond memories around those days and was thrilled to have raised his son to appreciate those very things.
Far too soon, the older man’s hunting friends began bowing out of the annual trips and were being slowly replaced by his son’s buddies. That was fine with this aging hunter, because being with them reminded him of so many earlier hunts.
Preparation
That old man had worn out a lot of boots hoofing around Montana and tripping over hidden tree trunks over the years, and he’d learned to respect the land and his own growing limitations. A one-time star on the high school gridiron, he understood that you can’t expect to perform your best without preparation. That ended up being one of the most important lessons of his life. He carried it into his job, his marriage and his hunting trips — he always developed a plan so that he could be as successful as possible.
Hunting can become strenuous work. Hiking up hills, backpacking or horseback riding into remote areas, fighting through a boot-sucking swamp to a special covert, walking miles across fields in search of Dakota pheasants or dragging that buck out of the back forty can tax the physical abilities of nearly anyone. He knew all of this from experience, and since his mid-20s, he had made it his own routine to prepare his body for those excursions.
Long ago, the old man had decided that walking was the most logical way to stay ready for the hunt. His plan was to walk at least 2 miles every day. He would sometimes carry a loaded backpack, carry an 8-pound steel rod he’d found at a scrap yard, pull a kid’s wagon loaded with more weight than any kid would load and most of the time he’d have his dog beside him.
There were still trips to the range and dog training, but the walk had become something of a religious experience and a personal dedication. He hoped to get his son into this routine, but the young man was too busy with his own kids, golfing, fishing and work — often saying he could run rings around his old man — and he could.
As he got older, especially if he was pushing over his 2-mile minimum, he found he needed to take an occasional breather. He shrugged this off as getting a little older. Checking with his doctor for confirmation, his self-prognosis proved correct.
Now he found himself on a Montana hillside taking just such a break, and only a few hundred yards from their perfect vantage point of a herd of good pronghorns. The boy, obviously frustrated by the slowdown, took off on a fast walk up the hill with his own hunting buddy, leaving his dad to catch his breath alone.
They were barely out of sight when the young man’s two-way radio crackled. There were chest pains and shortage of breath — and no time to waste.
The old man dumped his pack and double-timed down the hill nearly 2 miles to the point where they’d left an ATV for their final stalk. He roared back up the incline and found his son lying on the ground, holding his left arm.
Together, the old man and the friend helped load him up and head to their waiting truck. When they got there, an emergency air-ambulance loaded him up for the long ride to the nearest hospital.
That was nearly 40 years ago, and the old man is gone now. Today, there is another gently aging man who can be seen walking every morning, sometimes carrying some kind of metal rod. His dog is usually leashed at his side and walking with him is a younger man that looks a lot like him.
How to get in shape
In the days since that associate of mine was readying himself for the fall seasons, computers have made planning your hunting trip and your fitness so much easier. A brief search found multiple low-impact programs for hunters to follow that can help get you into condition for your next Western hike, carrying that bag of decoys into the marsh, dragging that deer out of the back forty or searching for that dog hidden in the woodland shadows as he holds its point.
Upon reviewing them, it surprised me how well the old man’s original plan would still fit into these newer health readiness ideas. As I was once told, it’s easier to start young because it only gets harder as you get older.
As a precaution, always talk to your doctor before starting any strenuous exercise program.
While you’re at it, don’t forget your canine hunting partner. Use the same approach that you are using for yourself: gradually increase their exercise and training regimen, allowing them to build endurance and strength over time.
Start with shorter walks or jogs and gradually increase the distance as their fitness level improves. This gentle approach minimizes the risk of injuries and helps dogs ease into the physical demands of hunting.
You should also consider incorporating basic obedience training during these conditioning sessions. This will help reinforce good behavior and responsiveness to commands in the field. Training aids such as whistles and retrieval dummies to simulate real hunting scenarios are excellent tools to reinforce discipline and desire.
A quick internet search will also find plenty of information on hunting dog conditioning. Having a plan is your first step.
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”
— Alexander Graham Bell
