What a trial! 400 dogs descend on CHB

Te Aute dog trials club president Rocky Hawkins with Kane at the club grounds. Photo/Warren Buckland

A decision to run the Te Aute sheep dog trials this month has resulted in a record number of entries for the club as its annual event starts south of Hastings today.

More than 400 dogs will run in the trials, which start at noon to accommodate an extra half-day in addition to the likelihood the Friday and Saturday programmes will run about 12 hours each, in near dawn-till-dusk draws starting at 7am.

The trials would normally have been held next April on the club's Brownrigg Agriculture Barker Block off Te Aute Trust Rd, between Hastings and Waipawa, but with the North Island championships being held on the same site in May problems arose over the pressure on the land.

It would have been out of play for too long, and staging the trials earlier in the traditional Hawke's Bay season from the end of January to late April was not an option.

Club president Rocky Hawkins said that by the October 24 deadline 193 entries had been received for the two heading dog classes and 213 were on the books for the two hunts.

"I knew we would get more entries because early trials are always well supported," he said, although surprised by the eventual number.

"This is just about as many as we could expect for the island championships."

He said triallists from as far away as Whangarei have entered, and the trials will be judged by officials appointed for the North Island championships.

Coming from the South Island will be short head and yard judge Chris Calder, of Levels, South Canterbury, and straight hunt adjudicator Andy McNab, of Methven, while the long head judge will be Ken Lobb, from Whangamomona, and the zig zag hunt judge will be Tony Fairweather, of Dannevirke.

The Te Aute club is one of 13 staging sheep dog trials in its Hawke's Bay centre each year, with more trials in the Wairarapa and Southern Hawke's Bay centre, including Dannevirke, along with trials at A and P shows, the next of which is the Central Hawke's Bay show in Waipukurau next week.