The now owner of Cardrona’s Kind Farm was traumatised with what she saw that day at just 16. There was no blood, and no animal was "harmed" but she said they were not being treated as sentient beings, and her belief system was set from then on.
"I started to see what was happening with animals and it was awful for me. I don’t want to be insensitive to farmers, and those in the business, but I didn’t like it."
Ms Courtenay grew up around cattle on a lifestyle block at Leigh, near Matakana in the North Island. She found the animals calming to be around and spent more time with them than with her friends, she said.
"Because of the time I spent with animals, I knew they were sentient. They loved, they felt fear and happiness, and they loved their children and they grieve, every animal does."
By the time she turned 18, Ms Courtenay had become vegetarian and she always planned on returning to care for animals.
"They were beautiful creatures. I used to spend a bit of time with our cattle and just sit down with them and a lot of time observing. I liked being alone as a kid, wondering and being with the animals."
Today, she still operated the same and encouraged her staff to take time with the animals on Kind Farm.
"It is having the time to spend with them, they are not just trophies; we encourage our staff to take time and sit down with them and hang out."
In her 30s, Ms Courtenay learned how horses behaved and communicated at a horsemanship clinic. It was there she was asked to draw a diagram of her dream life, and it unfolded before her eyes.
"I wanted a thousand acres, and an animal sanctuary, it was a manifestation. I drew a picture of a place with a winding driveway and a little cottage — it was this."
And "this" was exactly what she did in 2019 when she bought 200 acres from neighbouring Robrosa Station deep in the Cardrona Valley. Since then she has taken in animals who had either been neglected (although she does not like that word), needed a home, had retired or their owners had run out of the time or means to care for them.
Ms Courtenay had a "no judgement" policy to those who needed to let go of their animals. She just wanted to take in the animals to give them the kind of life they deserved, she said.
"Neglect is usually the last thing anyone wants to do to animals so we don’t blame or shame anyone."
Each animal had its own communication style and needs.
"It is a different language the way horses move and respond to what we do. The way they communicate is very subtle and smooth, most of the time. By the time they are actually kicking, there has been a lot of hints before that. They are subtle; we are very loud in everything we do."
Kind Farm hosted over 60 animals and was growing by the day. The farm offered behind the scenes tours, with the goal of being an animal tourism block on the main tourism highway between Queenstown and Wānaka.
"What we are hoping to do is become a place where people can come with their families and have a self-guided walk through, have a cafe, a gallery, they can have picnics, enriched enclosures for the animals."
Kind Farm was proudly family run too. Daughter Shannon Courtenay ran the farm’s social media and marketing, while son Tegan ran the nursery, growing natives for the Central Otago environment.
"We grow them right for the local conditions because it is a harsh winter here in Otago. I have bought natives elsewhere and they don’t survive," she said.
Kind Farm was never about becoming some sort of animal saviour, but a way of fulfilling that 30-year purpose she discovered that day in the cattle yards, she said.
"I wanted to create a space for animals that needed it, it wasn’t about being heroic or egotistical, I just wanted to be around animals in need."
The farm was helped by volunteers and the hope was to become self-sustainable over time as well as plant a huge native revegetation block, Ms Courtenay said.
"We want the birds back."
She admitted it had not been an easy ride, and there were still big hoops to jump through to become profitable, given they were not farming the animals.
"It has a lovely history this farm, and people who used to live here always pop up out of the blue."
Asked if she was proud to finally put the pieces of her dream puzzle together, she said there was so much work to do she had not even thought about pride.
"It is a moving target and I feel we haven’t done enough yet. We want more animals and to have that we have to have the people and the tours going."
