Hunterville Huntaway Festival 2012
Saturday, 27 October 2012
The weather was perfect, food delish, refreshments
flowing and an estimated 2,000 plus festival goers were entertained for the
afternoon and into the evening at the annual Hunterville Huntaway Festival. The main event, aptly named The
Shepherd’s Shemozzle, ran for the 14th year and proved just as
exciting as in past years. The Children’s
Shemozzle brought kids from all over the lower North Island to compete and the Miss
Huntaway competition was howlingly good.
This year the Festival attracted the attention of a Japanese
TV presenter who arrived a few days beforehand, borrowed a local farmer’s dog
to train with and run on the day, then with his crew filming from ground and
sky, ran the race himself! If you’ve
ever been to see the Shepherd’s Shemozzle you’ll understand that this was no
mean feat! This is one tough and crazy race
for both man and dog! It all starts with
the dogs chained up in the main street – what a commotion!
The Shepherds' first challenge is to find their own dog among the 60 odd others and unchain it (other dogs are mistakenly freed at times), grab a jerkin (not the height of fashion and a cumbersome piece of clothing at best) and
take off with dog in tow for a major hill climb and slippery down slope followed by a challenging
obstacle course which leads to the finish line.
Just some of the more testing obstacles in this year’s course included eating
tripe or raw onions washed down with a cup of vinegar (either man or dog could do
the eating – YUCK!), a tunnel crawl, carrying bulls testicles in ones mouth (this was for the Shepherds -
Eeewww), dragging man and dog through a man-made marsh, then bobbing for a dog
collar in a pond full of live eels before a wheelbarrow ride for the pooch and a mad
dash for the finish line. A right old
Shemozzle, I’m sure you can imagine.
The Children’s race is a lesser version of the
Shepherds race, no dog included, but just as grueling for the kids. Their obstacle course is not quite as nasty
as the Shepherd’s but has all the challenges at kid level. All the children that competed on the day ran
a terrific race and did themselves, their families, their schools and their communities proud.
Miss Huntaway is not your usual beauty contest. Entrants must be “maiden bitches” – in other
words, a female huntaway who hasn’t had pups!
Dog and owner take to the stage, where the MC asks the contestant a
question to which they must answer 1 bark for yes or 2 for no, any more barking
and it’s understood the prospective Miss Huntaway is unsure. Dogs and owners
were a sight to behold – just Boot-e-full!
One last shout out has to go to the Shemozzle
Coordinating Committee - what an absoutely amazingly, talented bunch of people! The whole day ran as smoothly as clockwork to
the visitor’s eye, everything was well set up, superbly organised (well, as organised as
a shemozzle can be) and from what I saw everybody had a fantastic time. A big thumbs up to the team!
Now we just have to wait and see what the Japanese television crew put together from their experiences! I hope they enjoyed themselves as much as the rest of us did.
Now we just have to wait and see what the Japanese television crew put together from their experiences! I hope they enjoyed themselves as much as the rest of us did.
Read more about The Hunterville Huntaway Festival on the official Shemozzle website. To find out about more festivals in the Rangitikei visit RANGITIKEI.com
