Long time in the saddle for musterer

Neil Driver.
Neil Driver.
It might seem like the proverbial bus man's holiday, but for the past 15 years, full-time musterer Bill Sutherland, of Cromwell, has spent his annual break in the saddle on the Otago Cavalcade.

He yesterday headed out of Dansey Pass towards the Kakanui River on the 66-rider Mt Buster trail.

Mr Sutherland first became involved in mustering in 1966 and has worked full-time on high country farms in the lower South Island for the past 15 years.

He said while the number of runs he worked on had dropped from between eight and ten to four or five - mostly near Cromwell and Bannockburn - there was plenty to keep him going.

Most of the musters he and his eight-dog team take part in involve accessing remote high country land on horseback.

‘‘It's better working stock off a horse, particularly cattle. They respond better to the horses, and there's less noise than a motorbike. And it beats walking,'' he said.

After riding cavalcade trails for 15 years, he said he was ‘‘running out of new country to see'', but was determined to keep riding as long as possible. If he slowed down and gave up riding, he ‘‘might seize up a bit''.

‘‘I've seen most of the trails forwards and backwards, but it is still a good break.

We have quite a few people from the North Island on the trail, and it's a good way for town people to see this kind of country. There's usually a good bunch on the trails, who enjoy a beer or two,'' he said.

The cavalcades were a good opportunity to train new horses. He was riding most of the Mt Buster trail on a young horse he broke in last October.

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