Veteran cavalcaders leaving horses at home this year

Veteran cavalcaders Les and Chris Bayne will participate in their 23rd and 22nd cavalcade,...
Veteran cavalcaders Les and Chris Bayne will participate in their 23rd and 22nd cavalcade, respectively, this year, but without their horses. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.

Not even an injured horse will keep Les and Chris Bayne away from the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust's cavalcade.

The Mosgiel couple are veterans of the annual event, Mr Bayne having taken part every year since its inception in 1991, while his wife missed only that first year.

Mrs Bayne (64), who manages PGG Wrightson in Mosgiel, will notch up her 20th year as trail boss of the Tussock Creek light wagon trail when it heads off this weekend.

The couple were usually found at the head of their trail, driving their two horses, Kate and Oak, from the comfort of their cart.

However, five weeks ago, Kate injured a tendon and then had a reaction to a drug being used to treat her.

That took the lining off her stomach - ''she was so sick and wouldn't eat'' - and the couple feared she would die.

Fortunately, Kate had recovered well and was looking ''absolutely fabulous'', but was not up to the trip.

The further bad news was Oak

could not be put in with another horse. Also, the cavalcade was ''not a training track'' for a new horse, Mrs Bayne said.

Instead of driving their cart, the couple will be driving the lead vehicle at the head of the trail, as it wends its way from Wairuna, near Clinton, leaving on Sunday morning, and arriving in Outram, next Saturday.

''I said to the team, `I think I'll get a La-Z-Boy chair, put it on the back [with] a bottle of wine and crack the whip','' she quipped.

Although the couple initially were ''absolutely gutted'' not to be taking their horses, they had talked it over and, in the 23 years, they had never had anything go wrong with them.

''We've been very, very lucky. Things happen. We've accepted it now,'' Mrs Bayne said.

But she admitted it would be a strange feeling when they pulled out of home with no cart on the trailer and with it not being ''packed to the gunwales'' with horse feed and gear.

It would also be strange tomorrow when they arrived at the starting point and everyone else was unloading horses, she said.

Mr Bayne had been on a cart with a friend on the first cavalcade over the old Dunstan trail. A blizzard hit riders and wagoners on the first day and he was on the cold side of the cart.

He recalled how his hat blew off and when he got off the cart he could not get co-ordinated enough to get back on. The situation got so grim he could not do up a button.

Mrs Bayne, watching a news item about the cavalcade on national television, could not believe what she was seeing.

''I thought to myself, I'm going to go next time. How silly am I ... all these years later,'' she laughed yesterday.

Mrs Bayne enjoyed the challenge of the cavalcade, meeting people, getting out among the farming community and countryside and seeing some ''beautiful places and spectacular scenery''.

''Other people are never going to see what we see. We're just lucky, lucky people,'' she said.

She had a good team around her which made her job easier. She reckoned the secret to being a good trail boss was keeping an eye ''on everything'', both horses and people.

''Les always says, `Watch out if she folds her arms ... she means business','' she laughed.

As for any trail boss retirement plans, organising was already under way for next year's cavalcade, finishing in Roxburgh, ''and it looks like I'm going to be doing it'', she said.

• Hundreds of riders, wagoners and walkers from the nine trails will converge on Outram for a parade at noon next Saturday, while a country fair day will be held at the West Taieri rugby grounds. A hoedown will be held at night.

sally.rae@odt.co.nz

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