Howdy from horse country. The farm towns around Christchurch are thick with sheep for sure. But it is also a big horse country. Horses of all types: racing and harness racing, equestrians both English style and Western. This is the only other country where we have seen a western saddle. Girls here are like girls when I was growing up: everyone has a horse, or six. The rodeo came to the next town over, so we decided to make a day of it. I was very interested to see how rodeos would differ in New Zealand from the USA. Well they do not differ at all. Same events, same judging, same beer booth, same young people hanging out. The cowboys were probably not as good as the professionals in the US, but the horses were much better. These horses are actual working ranch horses that do this job every day. Not just weekend rodeos.The roping horses carried the team. Nothing more to write about there.
So the next weekend we tried again for a New Zealand unique event. We headed to the Ashburton A&P show. A&P (Agriculture and Pastoral) shows are the livestock expos where young and old people exhibit their livestock, home goods and the like. Equipment and supply companies exhibit their new equipment. With covid these are scaled down to nothing except a sheep dog yard competition and equestrian show jumping. Show jumping is always exciting to watch. We saw only the junior events, but these kids were jumping over 1.6-8 m (5 ft ish). Lots of refusals by the horses, but no spills by the riders.
Then over to the sheep dogs. What a hoot. We planned to spend a few minutes and then go back for the open show jumping. But we became immersed in the dog event. We met many old timers (this is definitely a sport favoring experience), who gave us some insights. Glad for that, because there was a lot of subtlety. Like the horses, these dogs work all day, every day. On the few weekends when they get to go to a competition, it is the highlight of their week; they love it. They feel the pressure of performing to perfection, that is evident. These farmers love their dogs and they are fiercely proud of them. They sure do not do this for the prize money, none of the ones we talked to even knew how much the prize money was. It is the pride and prestige that drives them. There is a lot of money in a good sheep dog however, they sell for around $13,000 to $15,000 for a finished one. All these guys know each other’s dog’s lineages, and “swap a bit”. I took that to mean they breed their dogs to each other once in a while.
Every country seems to have its own sheep herding dog. All different to deal with the topography of the country. Here the hills are anything but rolling. Some of the terrain is so rugged, horses cannot cover it, and men neither. All sheep dogs are extremely athletic and have endurance not matched by most any other animal. But here it is especially necessary. There are two main types of dogs here for two purposes. The huntaway and the eye dog. Eye dogs are what we usually think of in a sheep dog; they are usually border collies, a taller, leaner, shorter-haired version from the English breed. They work by “watching” herder and sheep. These dogs run around the sheep and drive them toward the herder. They are impeccably trained to follow directions from the herder, usually in impossibly rapid succession. Communication is usually by different whistles. Each dog will only respond to its own owner’s whistle voice.
The Huntaway is so named because it moves the sheep away from the herder, not toward; it “hunts away”. It is a New Zealand breed it is a blend of border collies and labradors, rottweilers, fox hounds and other breeds. They are tall and lanky and they move the sheep by barking at them. More of a driver than a herder. These are the dogs that tackle the tough terrain to move out or bring back the herds from the hills. Usually a farmer has a couple of each type.
The competition we watched was all eye dogs for a yarding competition. This emulates the dog working to bring sheep into the “yard”. The sheep are herded through a maise of gates, pens, and bridges. Something similar to the jumping patterns the equestrians were doing in the next venue. It was intricate with lots of wrong way opportunities the sheep could take. The sheep were feisty and a few jumped over the fences (more than a few). We saw some fantastic man-dog partnerships. We planned to see a few competitors only, but we stayed all day.
Ashburton A&P Show 2020, Tux Yarding Competition
New Zealand, true to its Great Britain Commonwealth history, celebrates Guy Fawkes Night. Celebrating the execution of Guy Fawkes for treason, by being dragged, hanged and then quartered. He was the instigator of a failed attempt to assassinate King James I when he visited parliament, by blowing up the building. November 5th, while you all were watching election results, we were hearing fireworks. I did not see any burning effigies like they do in Scotland, just an excuse to set off fireworks. And then we experienced our first noticeable earthquake. We were staying near Christchurch, the site of two massive, recent earthquakes, so we should not have been surprised to get one. In New Zealand you cannot get too far away from a recent earthquake site, it is a geologically active island. No harm, just got us out of bed without the immediate need for caffeine.
Now we are housesitting a small farm inland while the homeowners go to.. an A&P show. It was raining and misty all morning as we did our chores. One of which is to exercise the working dogs who otherwise are kenneled and feed an orphan lamb. It was wet and cold. I was surprised at how cold my hands were – it is supposed to be almost summer and two days ago at the coast I was slathered in sunscreen. Well the mist just cleared and the surrounding mountains are dusted in snow. No wonder my hands are cold. Out with the cold weather gear again. I think I have stowed that stuff three times already this season!
