Maria Burrell (23) might only be in her fourth year of the sport but she is already making her mark despite not coming from a farming background.
At the recent Gore dog trials, she won the short head and yard with 99 points out of a possible 100 and topped the long head with 97 points, both with her heading dog Code.
Coincidentally, prominent Palmerston triallist Lloyd Smith, who has had the biggest influence on her fledgling career, placed second to her in both events, two points behind in each, with another Code. She was also fifth in the straight hunt with Tarn on 94 points.
That followed a raft of placings at various competitions in the Southland centre this season, including a second in the long head with Brook at Garston and fourth in the zig zag hunt and fifth in the straight hunt with Rambo.
She won the maiden straight hunt at Waikaia with Rambo and was fifth with Mica in the zig-zag hunt at Waimahaka. She won both maidens at Mossburn and was fifth in the long head with Code, and she was third in the yarding with Code, and fourth with Rambo in the zig-zag hunt.
Ms Burrell grew up just out of Greymouth where she enjoyed spending time on a small sheep farm, owned by family friends, further up the valley.
In her last year of school, her sister’s partner was managing a property in South Otago and a summer job turned into full time work for her. She has since moved to shepherding on a property near Gore, where she has been for nearly two years.
Her introduction to the sport came as a ‘‘real fluke’’. She was helping out at the local Warepa trials at her first job when she was asked to clerk for Mr Smith who was judging.
She asked him ‘‘a thousand questions’’ and he suggested she come for a training session and gave her some homework to work on.
Dogs had given her something to focus on and the interest had never waned. She had continued to learn from Mr Smith and said her dogs would not be where they were now without him.
Her first dog trial was at Waikaia with her heading dog Brook, whom she got as a year-old dog for a box of beer and was a ‘‘little blank canvas’’.
Code was the first heading pup she got and, until not long ago, he was not looking particularly promising. ‘‘I just kept him because I had to,’’ she said honestly.
She took him to several trials at the start of the season and he was very lost and did not know what he was doing. But at Mossburn, he started to figure it out.
Code has already qualified for the New Zealand dog trial championships in May, and Ms Burrell has five dogs qualified for the South Island championships in Mararoa. There were still a few trials to go to potentially gain more points.
She competed at last year’s New Zealand championships and her ultimate aim was to win a national title.
It was Tarn the huntaway, her very first pup, that was probably her favourite dog — ‘‘we share a special little bond’’ — and she preferred huntaways over heading dogs. ‘‘They are just full-on and just want to get the job done and they are not worried about being too fancy’’.
And it was Tarn who was usually the ‘‘life-saver’’ when anything went off-plan at work — ‘‘he’s usually the one that sorts things’’.
