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Trial by fire

July 18, 2016

As a part-time, small-scale farmer with one disobedient mongrel I always marvel at dog triallists’ skills, but the recent week-long Tux South Island and New Zealand Dog Trial Championships at Omarama took my admiration to a new level. First, there was the scale of the courses. I’ve driven past the grounds many times but without people in the landscape to give a sense of proportion the distances had never struck me. At the trials, if I took my untrained eye off the dog at the top of the long head course that was it. I couldn’t spot it again until it moved. And before you say “that reporter needs an eye test” my eyesight is 20/20 provided my glasses are on – I know because I had a check-up recently. Little wonder most spectators bore binoculars. I wasn’t there for the poor weather on the competition Tuesday either, so how competitors coped in snow and rain I can only imagine.

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Distance wasn’t a problem watching the hunts but with gradients that would tip a quad bike some dogs struggled to keep their trio of Merinos climbing straight.

And, of course, in the zig zag that was only half the challenge – for the final gate a tricky diagonal drive was needed before the lambs could sidle off into the matagouri scrub to find their flock mates.

With the short head and yard the task is to fetch the sheep then pen them in the middle of a paddock without so much as a fence on one side to act as a funnel – see Country-Wide, June, p86.

My not-so handy huntaway Guy and I wouldn’t have a hope, and even some of those at Omarama who had all amassed at least six points at open level in regional events to qualify also struggled.

Maurice Haakma (Ward, Marlborough), Alastair Campbell (Kaikoura), Gary Woods (Amberley, Canterbury) and Ian Broadhurst (Seddon, Marlborough) watch the zig-zag hunt.

But the best runs saw the sheep corralled swiftly and smoothly, with local stalwart Ginger Anderson and Don landing the short head title with 185.75 points, a whisker ahead of Young Country columnist Lloyd Smith and Check on 185.

It was Anderson’s fourth national win, his first coming at Masterton in the long head in 1995, followed by short head titles at Ngongotaha in 1997 and Gore in 2000.

His dedication to the sport saw him awarded life membership of the NZ Sheep Dog Trial Association during the week at Omarama following nomination by his home centre, north Otago – a rare honour indeed.

‘If I took my untrained eye off the dog at the top of the long head course that was it. I couldn’t spot it again until it moved.’

The long head title went to Murray Child and Dice of Whangarei. Like Anderson, Child’s no stranger to national honours having won the zig-zag hunt at Tauramanui in 2005, the long head at Wanaka in 2012 and the short head at Geraldine in 2014.

In the zig zag huntaway, Owhango’s Hamish Parkinson and Shake built on a first-round leading score of 96 with 97 in the second round to amass 193 points, nearly four points clear of runner-up Troy MacDonald and Jude from Hunterville, giving Parkinson his first national title.

Straight huntaway winner was Tim Stevenson with Cruze, another pairing with no previous national honours.

Sometimes I’ve heard commercial farmers dismiss trialling as irrelevant within a farm context but even if some trial dogs aren’t at their best working mobs of several thousand, the ability to train and control dogs to that level has value since flocks will be mustered more efficiently and with less stress for both sheep and shepherd.

And as one of the younger competitors I spoke to at Omarama pointed out, he wouldn’t keep a dog for trialling if it wasn’t good on the farm too.

Speaking to the association’s acting promotions officer Sally Mallinson after the event, she said there were a lot of really good young people with exceptional dogs in the sport these days.

Four made it into the straight hunt run-off, including female competitor Samantha Shaw and Breeze of Gisborne who placed seventh.

“It’s great to see the sport in such good heart,” Mallinson said.

Hear, hear.

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Trial by fire

‘If I took my untrained eye off the dog at the top of the long head course that was it. I couldn’t spot it again until it moved.’

Trial by fire

‘If I took my untrained eye off the dog at the top of the long head course that was it. I couldn’t spot it again until it moved.’

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