Claudia Campbell, left, Anna Campbell and Eleanor Campbell. Photo / Catherine Fry
Twenty years ago, when Anna Campbell bought a house on 10 acres in the Mystery Creek area outside Hamilton, her goal was to provide a home for herself and her two daughters, Claudia and Eleanor (teenagers at the time) and start a dog-boarding kennel–just for little, chihuahua-type dogs.
Fast-forward to 2025.
The property has homes for each daughter, a successful dog boarding and daycare business for small breeds, and Claudia has her own floristry business.
The kennels, houses and barn take up about one acre, leaving another nine where the family has had a lot of fun breeding miniature farm animals that are black and white.
The three women love fashion and are regular entrants and winners in the horse-racing industry’s Fashion in the Field competitions.
Miniature Galloway cattle have all the attributes of full-size Galloways, but in a smaller package.
“For a lifestyle block, miniature cows do a good job eating the grass and there’s less pugging,” Anna said.
“We always befriend all our animals by hand-feeding them so we can move them between paddocks.”
The property easily supports a bull, five cows and two calves.
“We definitely breed for cuteness, aiming for compact belted Galloways or the white ones with black ears, noses and eyelashes.
“There is a good market for miniature cattle.”
Anna breeds black and white silkie and frizzle designer chickens.
A few silvers and greys have been allowed in.
Anna discovered Fashion in the Field competitions when she started watching a friend’s son racing horses.
“Now all three of us enter, as we all love fashion,” she said.
“Eleanor and I work around the kennels and farm, and it’s so nice to spend time hunting for outfits and accessories, perfecting our hair and makeup and getting all dressed up.”
They clearly have an eye for colours and detail, as they win regularly both in New Zealand and overseas.
Prizes include cash and other “lovely” things, including jewellery and travel.
“To give back to an industry that gives us all so much pleasure, I’ve been helping organise the events at Te Rapa races, where it all started for us.”
Anna’s elder daughter, Claudia, appreciates art.
She has a bachelor’s in art, majoring in fine art, and has studied interior design.
“I enjoy painting, design and architecture,” she said.
“I sold my paintings at markets and worked in a Hamilton florist for four years, learning how to be a florist.”
She lives in a tiny home on the property and loves living rurally, describing herself as “someone who’s happy to get her hands dirty but equally at home in a city art gallery”.
“In 2018, I bought a small truck and converted it into a travelling art gallery/florist business.”
Seven years on, Claudia still sells flowers from her flower truck and studio in Cambridge and she’s gained quite a following as a wedding florist, working throughout the North Island.
Claudia sources her flowers from Auckland and buys weekly top-ups from some “amazing Waikato growers”.
“I have chillers in the home barn and my Cambridge studio.
“I meet prospective brides and run classes from the studio.”
Claudia also enjoys Fashion in the Field but happily lets Anna and Eleanor dress her, and their choices have resulted in some good wins.
Anna’s younger daughter, Eleanor, has worked alongside her for 12 years at the kennels.
She completed a Communications Course at Wintec and runs the admin and accounts side, as well as being hands-on with the dogs.
Eleanor started the tradition of everything being black and white when she had her small house built.
She loves interiors and fashion.
“When I got two pigs, silkie chickens and dogs all in black and white, it became a thing that we always had black and white animals,” she said.
She bred dwarf babydoll sheep, a small, docile, friendly breed of sheep with a distinctive, teddy bear-like face.
They go through the paddocks after the mini Galloways and are an effective part of the paddock rotation.
Eleanor won her first Fashion in the Field competition when she was 14, but was too young to compete in the finals at Ellerslie with the car prize.
Since turning 18, Eleanor has won numerous competitions and travelled overseas.
At the 2023 Melbourne Cup Carnival, she won the Fashions on the Field Best Dressed Award wearing an altered Solace London gown and a hat by New Zealand milliner Monika Neuhauser.
“That was crazy and very unexpected,” she said.
“I won $50,000 in cash, about four TVs, a magnum of vintage champagne and other great prizes.”
Eleanor is getting married in early 2026 to dairy farmer Andrew Fullerton, and we can be sure that the bride, her mother and her sister will all be stunningly attired.