Juanita Duncan with Makahiwi Lucilla and Struan Duncan with Makahiwi Adelaide. Photo / Catherine Fry
Juanita Duncan with Makahiwi Lucilla and Struan Duncan with Makahiwi Adelaide. Photo / Catherine Fry
Taumarunui hill country farmers Struan and Juanita Duncan are continuing the family tradition of sheep and beef farming and breeding Crabbet Arabian horses.
Daughters Calah and Georgia, along with Georgia’s husband Marshall and their two children, live on the farm.
Calah and Marshall work with Struan, and Juanita is the international director at Taumarunui High School, alongside her involvement with the farm.
The couple’s son, Chase, and his wife, Tarin, have two children and visit regularly from Thames.
The Duncan family came over from Scotland in the mid-1800s.
“They moved around the country a lot and settled in Piarere, after my grandfather Colin Duncan lost his farm in Awakeri during the Great Depression,” Struan Duncan said.
“My dad, Sandy, was a shearer and my uncle, Lachie, a shepherd.”
The brothers pooled together and bought the original Makahiwi Station in the Kirikau Valley, Taumarunui, in 1960.
On their father’s advice, they purchased Arabian horses to use as stockhorses on their hill country sheep and beef farm.
“Arabians are well known for their superior stamina, agility and balance, making them ideal for hill country work,” Duncan said.
“They go all day and are loyal horses.”
Sandy and Lachie Duncan purchased their own stallion, Nomad, who went on to sire many foals.
Neighbours used Makahiwi stallions to breed their own stockhorses.
Sandy Duncan married Phyllis and Lachie Duncan married Ann in the 1960s while living in Kirikau.
Sandy Duncan took an interest in endurance riding in 1970, completing an 80km ride in Tokoroa on one of his Arabians and also took two horses to compete in the 1973 Tom Quilty Ride in Australia.
Sandy and Phyllis Duncan were some of the founders of the Taumarunui Endurance Club, the first endurance riding club in New Zealand.
Other clubs started up slowly after that.
Although initially a male-dominated sport, nowadays the sport is female-dominated.
Arabian horses are the preferred horses for endurance riders.
Juanita and Struan Duncan with a mare to be serviced by their stallion Inshallah Colorado. Photo / Catherine Fry
Struan and Juanita Duncan moved to Makahiwi Station in 1993 to support Sandy with the farm, moving Makahiwi to its current location in 1995.
The family company owns the family’s farming operations.
After the purchase of neighbouring property Waitangi Station in 2022, the Duncans are responsible for the day-to-day running of 855ha of mixed-contour country.
“We have 4300 Romney ewes using Waimai Romney rams for replacements and are sticking with wool,” Struan Duncan said.
“Dad loved wool and would have been really troubled at the decline in the wool industry.
“Our 5-year-old ewes are mated with terminal polled Dorset rams.
“We have 200 Hereford/Friesian cows from the dairy industry, which are mated with terminal Simmental sires.
“Eighty to 85 dairy grazers are on the farm from May to May each year, and we have 40 to 45 registered Arabian horses on the farm at any one time”.
The cattle, sheep and horses are all cross-grazed and rotated over much of the land in closed paddocks, and Duncan finds this beneficial for both the pasture and the stock.
Juanita Duncan feeding their stallion Inshallah Colorado.
The Duncans have focused their interest on the Crabbet strain of Arabians.
These beautiful horses originated from Arabia, where they were bred by Bedouins.
During the late 1800s, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and his wife Lady Anne, of Crabbet Park Stud in the UK, travelled in Arabia, buying horses from the sheiks.
Their daughter Judith Blunt-Lytton carried on their work until she died in 1971.
The Crabbet bloodlines continue to influence the breed worldwide today.
“I didn’t want to be the son who disrespected his dad’s legacy,” Duncan said.
“He had put so many years of work into his breeding, importing good stallions from overseas.”
In 2016, the Duncans bought their own Crabbet stallion, Inshallah Colorado, from Australia, and he is sought after as a sire.
The Duncans have hosted the Makahiwi Challenge since 2018, the longest endurance race in New Zealand, with riders completing anything from 20 to 240km.
Makahiwi horses feature strongly in endurance competitions, both nationally and internationally.
The stud holds the most qualified kilometres in New Zealand endurance riding.
It’s a family affair, and 6-year-old granddaughter Alaska has already competed in her first lead rein class endurance ride with her dad, Chase.
