Gentle giants offer visitors a trip back in time

Clydesdale horses are renowned for their work rate in pulling heavy loads. Two of the graceful horses, Ed and Jock, put in the hard yards at the Tauranga A & P Show on Saturday.
The Clydesdales worked non-stop, taking hundreds of children and parents for rides in a Western-styled wagon in the inner circle of the Tauranga Racecourse.
The horses - Ed, 10, and Jock, 9 - and the replica Conestoga wagon are owned by Janice and Glenn Sutton from Whakatane. They made their first appearance at the 115th A & P Show.
"The children loved it," said Mr Sutton. "It gives us pleasure seeing people enjoying themselves."
The Suttons bought the full-blooded Clydesdales from the South Island high country four years ago - Ed from the famous Canterbury Erewhon Station, which breeds the working horses, and Jock from Castlehill Station between Darfield and Arthur's Pass. They have another 2-year-old Clydesdale called Blossom on their farm near Whakatane.
They also run a small herd of six water buffalo and will use their milk to make mozzarella cheese.
"There's a resurgence in Clydesdales - particularly cross-breeding with thoroughbreds to make hunting horses," said Mrs Sutton, who was once a possum hunter in Taranaki.
"Heavy harness clubs around the country are also using them for ploughing and carriage rides.
"The Clydesdales are just gentle giants; their docile nature is well known and they are willing to work."
Mr Sutton, a former forester and environmental consultant, bought plans for the Conestoga wagon from a Texas museum and had the wagon made in Poland. It is the only replica of an American Western wagon in the country.
It has a water barrel, pick axe, gold miner's shovel and other tools hanging on the side of the wagon - just like the old days.
The wagon originated in the Conestoga Valley, Pennsylvannia, and was introduced by the Mennonite German settlers. The wagons were used in the late 18th and 19th century throughout the United States and Canada.
Now the Suttons are turning back time. They are taking the Clydesdales and the wagon to weddings, shows and parades around the North Island.
The Tauranga A & P Show, which brings the country to the city, again attracted many thousands of visitors.
There was the usual horse-and-pony and sheep-and-cattle show, as well as shearing competitions, sheep dog trials and displays of cottage industries.
Farm animals such as alpacas and Italian Maremmas sheep dogs also attracted plenty of interest - just as much as the Clydesdales.