The many cyclists heading up the hill out the back of Hanmer Springs may have regretted their timing as they sucked in the dust from the many vehicles heading to St James Station on a hot North Canterbury day.
It’s a dusty road for the final few kilometres into St James, but what a view on the way! There’s something magical about being up in the mountains in that area, and the opportunity to spend a day there photographing horses is special. Plenty of people were there with their cameras, and plenty registered to make bids on the 20 horses in this year’s muster.
This year was a little different as for health and safety reasons, the crowd wasn’t allowed into the yards with the horses as they had in previous years. Having toddlers, people pushing prams and people on walking sticks sharing a yard with horses that had rarely been handled was always a risk, and this year it had to be managed.
So the horses were put into lots of four, and herded around the various pens so that the punters could get a good look at them and see them move. A new sales ring was set up with lots of “keep out, danger” tape making sure that the unwary didn’t wander into unsafe areas.
Of course there were a few of the old blokes muttering what nonsense it all was, but it did actually work quite well, and there was plenty of opportunity to have a good look – from a safe distance – at particular horses.
The 20 horses, all aged two or three years old, were mustered a week ago from the Ada Valley. Over the week they travelled 55 kilometres over rough ground with ten musterers guiding them. There were a few who had superficial injuries from their trip, and one was withdrawn for the sale as she was lame.
There was quite a crowd gathered by the time the sale opened, but many were there for a good day out, and the bidding was steady rather than fierce. A three-year-old bay gelding received the top price of $5,600. Ben Wood was the successful bidder, although it appeared he wasn’t the one having to write the cheque. He was, however, going to be very involved in starting the horse, along with his grandfather Linny Morris. Linny has a huge amount of experience with the St James horses and, as per usual, went out on the muster with a horse purchased out of the last sale two years ago. Ben is going to start to do some trotting poles with the young horse who went on the muster soon, and is hoping to go on to do some hunter jumping and hunting with him.
While the top price wasn’t up to the $10,000 from the last sale, held in January 2017, this year had a higher average price of $2600 compared to the 2017 average of $2200.
This year the reserve was $1000 and there were a couple who were sold for just that. The top price for a filly was achieved by the last two lots, both chestnuts, who each went for $3600.
There were a few show jumping and eventing riders in the crowd; we didn’t see any successful bidding being done by them, although Rose Alfeld’s father Murray was the underbidder for a three-year-old bay gelding who moved very well, and eventually sold for $3300. Rose’s top horse, My Supa Nova, is out of a St James-bred mare.
Another horse that the auctioneers mentioned in their pre-amble was Paradox, who won the Junior Show Hunter of the Year at the 2018 Horse of the Year Show, ridden by Sally Ward from Waipukurau. Sally purchased Paradox from Melanie Morris.
We will have a further article in our next magazine on the wonderful day at St James Station horse sale.
