"Some of these competitors will have up to five dogs each."
One thousand sheep were needed for each of the long head, short head and yard, zigzag hunt and straight hunt events.
The same sheep had been used for the club's trial last month and had been worked again for about a week before the championships.
There had been good feedback about how well-behaved the sheep were for contestants.
About three times a day the leaderboard was updated with the competitors who had the highest scores.
By tomorrow night, the top seven finalists for the New Zealand Championships should be known.
The South Island winners would be those who finished with the most points in each of the four events.
On Friday, the seven finalists would compete again and their two scores would be added together to find the New Zealand championship winners.
Off the paddock there had been other challenges to cope with, including the main water tank that had sprung a leak and emptied out, the generator that broke down and the deep fryer which had blown up.
Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Garth Cross about the South Island and New Zealand Sheep Dog Trial Championships below:
