In December, helping out a neighbour amid a toughening Hawke's Bay summer, he met 2010 Golden Shears and World champion Cam Ferguson, who soon worked out there was another possible show shearer in the shed.
To cut a long story short, they chatted over smoko, worked out they weren't related and got on with preparing Mark Ferguson for competition shearing.
He says he was so nervous at his first attempt at the Dannevirke Show on February 3 he barely remembers it, just missing a place in a semifinal.
But the next day he won at Marton, a week later he was third at Te Puke, and then won at Pahiatua a few days before the trip to Masterton, all in the Junior class which is governed by numbers of competition wins or daily tallies shorn in the woolshed.
A few weeks ago he was barely aware there were any other competitions other than Golden Shears, for which he had to borrow a handpiece.
He had his own, but shearers were able to take two on to the stand.
"It's a pretty steep learning curve," he said.
