Springbank Farm’s Chris Calder and Ali Barrett are hosting the local heat, South Island finals and New Zealand finals for the Tux yarding and handy dog challenge series at Levels Valley from January 12 to 14.
Confirming their entries are national triallists Neil Evans and Ian Stevenson from Omihi, Southland’s Brian Dickison and Waikato’s Leo Jecentho.
The four triallists swept Australia aside with convincing wins in both tests in Ashburton last November.
Now they will be aiming to put their best performance in front of them against many of the best dogs in the country at Levels Valley.
The field includes the top qualifiers from the North Island final in Taupo earlier this month.
Event secretary Sally Mallinson said a good North Island contingent is coming down including Bob Bruce and she had heard second-hand that Mr Jecentho plans to run three heading dogs in the yarding.
"We will probably have 200 heading runs entered and I’m going to say 60 for the handy dog. All members of the transtasman team have entered and funny enough, Neil Evans who was the captain will compete against his son-in-law Brendon Stewart who qualified at the Ashburton A&P Show and his daughter, Anna Stewart, is the maiden qualifier from the West Otago show for the handy dog."
A lot of good local competitors would strengthen the field with younger and other triallists aiming to produce their best against the big names, she said.
"These events, particularly the handy dog were actually started to get young people interested in dog trials and nine times out of 10 the ones we’ve encouraged to compete are hooked. That’s because the handy dog is a more practical competition and they are quite often not as nervous doing it."
She said the challenge series was different than other competitions with only two events held — the yarding for heading dogs and the handy dog event for huntaways.
Winning qualifiers from the local challenge heat would go on to the South Island final and, in turn, South Island qualifiers would compete in the national run-off in both the yarding and handy dog events, she said.
"So it’s pretty full-on. Our heats are for the South Canterbury Tux yarding and the Winchester Handy Dog. Two open competitors and one maiden will go through to the South Islands."
The Springbank Farm owners have got the course in top condition and are rumoured to have even taken a ride-on mower to level the playing field.
