It was an absolute shemozzle from start to finish.
There's no other to describe the annual Hunterville Huntaway Festival's signature event, the shepherds' shemozzle.
On Saturday 77 young shepherds and their dogs lined up for the 13th running of the shemozzle in front of hundreds of onlookers crowding Hunterville's main street.
The winner
was local Sam Duncan and his huntaway Bell. As well as running through an obstacle course and slithering down a mud slide, Sam also had to retrieve a dog collar from a water-filled tank with his teeth and catch an eel from the same tank (that earned bonus points).
And for at least part of the course, he and the other shepherds had to run with a pair of bull testicles in his mouth. The up side was that the testicles weren't still attached to any bulls.
Shona Jones, secretary of the organising committee, said entrants came from around the district as well as Reparoa, Taumarunui, Te Kuiti, Hastings and Gisborne.
Ms Jones said the event was backed by a new sponsor this year, Platinum Homes, along with help from across the Hunterville community.
"It was another great day," she said.
"The start of the shemozzle was, well, a shemozzle because the shepherds had to run out of the hall, stand in a line and call their dogs. Only problem was there was a heap of dog food between the dogs and their owners. That tested some relationships," she said.
Other events included a children's and inter-school shemozzle, dog barking, a Miss Huntaway competition and a shearing contractors' challenge.
