Bruce Parkinson, the old hand, not so much in years but in experience, and the new boy, Sam Duncan, were the only sheep-dog trialists to keep Wanganui's name to the fore at the recent national championships.
Parkinson's Brook won the shorthead and yard, and Duncan's Belle was third in the zigzag hunt.
It is a long road from the pup pen to the podium. Like race horses, breeding helps but it is only the start. Brook's journey is a good example.
Parkinson bred her from his bitch Posh, who was mated to Peter Boyce's Steel. She took Parkinson's eye as a pup and responded well to training, learning quickly. At 13 months, she had her first placing in an open trial.
For the next two years, she competed only at trials that were not too demanding and where the sheep were not too unruly. In 2010, she was the top heading dog in the centre and finished second in the longhead at the NZ championships.
Last year brought additional honours; second in the NZ shorthead and a place in the test team that beat the Australians in Auckland.
Some success came in the 2012 season, where again she was run sparingly. After missing out on a place at the North Island champs, it was on to Wanaka. Her longhead run was not good enough to make the top seven, which left the shorthead and yard.
Parkinson spent all day leading up to her late-afternoon qualifying run studying the course. Mapping out the run-out, working out whether the lambs were leaning left or right on any part of the course, in an effort to minimise mistakes.
Brook is a bitch that seems to rise to the big-pressure occasions and the rest is history. Brook still does her share of the work on Tanupara Station.
Belle's journey has been a little different. She was bred by Mark Lowry out of his Jill by Stuart McNeill's Paul. She was trained to be a working station huntaway, which she still is. She burst on to the Wanganui trial season by winning at the first two trials this season as a 6-year-old. It wasn't long before her potential as a champion was recognised, and she finished third equal in the huntaway top-dog contest.
She went to the North Island champs as a relatively unknown dog and, for Duncan, it was his first championship, although he is a well-known polo player.
Part of his preparation was practising under Stuart Bradley. Belle made both huntaway finals and Duncan admits to a fair degree of nervousness as he went on to the mark.
He finished with a third and a seventh.
At the nationals, Belle's ability to watch and control the lead sheep and keep them on course with the minimum of movement earned her a place in the zigzag hunt final, competing against 260 dogs to get there.
The first two dogs could not control their sheep and failed to complete. Belle's sheep were difficult at the start but she gained control and finished third.
Sam Duncan showed a degree of stockmanship that many more experienced competitors envied.
This is a combination with the potential to be in many more finals.