Sheepishly Failng the Fitness Test

Courier Column for 6 February

Dog walkers hardly do it in stile

Wherever you look the message seems the same: we’re dreadfully unfit. A recent study found that one in 12 adults hadn’t walked continuously for five minutes - except when shopping! And, over the same period of a month, nearly half of us had not once walked for 30 minutes for leisure. In fact nearly 80% fail to hit the government’s target – moderate exercise for 30 minutes at least 12 times a month.

            So we need to get out more! And what better way to do it than by rambling along country footpaths? Many are accessible and welcoming.  Some are not. A favourite walk of ours is now completely impassable. Cattle have turned the first part into a welly-sucking quagmire. Then a thorn hedge has been allowed to grow right across the narrow path. It’s the landowner’s responsibility to keep it clear. She lives abroad and is uncontactable.

            So, to get to the woods, Myrtle and I trudge across the cattle field and negotiate a barbed wire fence. At the other end of the path is a high stile. Myrtle is lithe enough to leap this in one bound and I am still just fit enough to climb over it. But my friend with the overweight labrador came a cropper the other day. She couldn’t lift him over and so had to trudge all the way back home the long way round. And, anyway, what about those who can’t clamber over stiles - the elderly, the disabled, or the very unfit who most need the exercise. Let’s replace stiles with gates. Everywhere!

I recommend getting a dog. Then you HAVE to walk daily. But even this can be problematic. We were confronted with a sign last week: “This is PRIVATE land not a public park. DOGS loose amongst livestock will be shot.” Pretty intimidating and legally wrong. But not everyone knows the law. Even this newspaper went a bit far the other week, suggesting: (dog) “owners can be prosecuted if their pets are let off their leads in a field with sheep present.”

Actually it’s only illegal if the dog is not under ‘close control’ or is worrying (chasing or attacking) sheep. But, as the law fails to define ‘close control’, and with irate farmers threatening to shoot first and ask questions later,  you might be forgiven for deciding to stay safely indoors. That won’t get you fit though.