Jack keeps long-trek muster alive

There's not many people on the road out to Douglas at 6.30am on Saturday, which is just the way Jack Rawlinson likes it.

He and his crew of willing helpers are meeting up at his daughter and son-in-law's farm to take over 250 cattle on the final leg of a three-day journey.

By 7am, the riders are mounted and the band of horses, dogs, helpers and cattle set off. Jack normally rides for all of the three day trip but this year still shaking off a dose of flu, he is driving one of the support vehicles instead, "although I will be riding before we finish, as one of the riders has to get to his rugby game".

As dawn breaks and the sky lightens, it is easy to see the beauty of the trip, travelling at just a few kilometres an hour.

The fantastic Taranaki scenery is breath-taking when moving at cattle speed, and there is an amazing feeling of being part of something timeless, a tradition that, in Jack's case, isn't going to stop.

"I don't see why I wouldn't do it. I do say oh, this will be the last year, but the young ones they all tell me I am not allowed to stop." For all his threatening to give it up, Jack is as likely to stop doing the annual muster on horseback as he is to give up farming at all. "I've never done the price comparison since the first year, when it would have cost me $3,500 to use trucks to move the stock, I've never been interested."

The first couple of years Jack did the muster, it was just him and his daughter Debra moving the stock the 50kms from the Matau farm to East Road. "Now we have lots of offers, the Howells family, they always join us, we have a good group of horse people who know what they are doing."

As the day progresses there are more vehicles on the road, who all seem happy to slow down until they can get past the stock. "People have got more considerate through the years not less. They often wind down their windows and tell me it is the best sight they have seen." Jack is aware of the impact the annual event has on traffic, "I always inform the Council, tell them the dates and the route, and we have the flashing lights and signs, that helps a lot." The stock themselves seem happy to move out the way for the cars, "we don't rush them, that way, they spread out a bit and tend to go on the sides of the road a bit more, so cars can come through the middle".

By finishing on a Saturday, rather than Sunday as he used to, Jack also manages to avoid the stock trucks. "I am a nuisance to them, and they are to me, but they don't work Saturdays so that's why we do the last leg on a Saturday."

Before 11am, the stock are all in a field, the travelling done but the work not finished for the day. "We still have to move them out to where we want them all, but not before we eat."

Just as much a part of the tradition as the muster, is the bacon, eggs "and a couple of beers" that all the helpers eat together. "It's the first meal we've eaten on the Saturday, and I tell you, it's the best meal you'll eat!"

As the group head off to eat that meal, the horses enjoy their own end of muster celebration, saddles off, they each take a roll in the grass, legs in the air.