The aristocrat of the marsh

I first saw Paul and Pat Farrington’s Irish water spaniels in action when they were picking-up on a driven day. A partridge had been wing-tipped early in the drive and crash-landed well out on the marsh. As the tide rose the stricken bird found itself afloat and was a surprisingly good swimmer. A number of other handlers had tried and failed to gather it, so Paul was sent for with his peculiar-looking curlycoated companions.

Paul and Pat are both committee members of Little Oakley & District Wildfowlers, so a water retrieve across the saltings came as second nature. At Paul’s command, a tall, aristocratic spaniel sniffed the air, padded across the marsh and swam like an otter straight to the partridge.

“The stricken bird was a surprisingly good swimmer”

The bird was not going to give