This year’s Clark Rubber Australian Kelpie Muster has again been heralded a a success, drawing more than 9000 people to Casterton along with their canine friends.
Casterton Kelpie Association president Karen Stephens said 20 years since it all started, the whole committee was thrilled to welcome visitors from across Australia and overseas even all the way from Norway.
A highlight of the past weekend was the breaking of the world record for the Kelpie High Jump.
Tegan Eagle, Croydon, and her 3.5 year-old dog RV Bailey jumped 2.915 metres which beat the previous record set in 2007. It won the event last year on 2.53m.
Bailey also won the Kelpie Dash, and the overall triathlon winner, and the Kelpie Hill Climb was won by Tristan Mioni with his dog Cork. The Stockman’s Challenge was hotly contested and won by Robert Copping with his horse Cop That Red Rogue with dog Commander Zac and they also won the highest scoring dog work. The RMA Network Futurity was won by Travis Ware and his dog Hilton Park Bear.
In the Clark Rubber Australian Working Dog Auction, the highest priced dog AKennedys Burgess – a male, 17 month-old black and tan Kelpie – was sold for $10,000 by Andrew Kennedy, Andrew Kennedy Kelpies, Canonbar, Nyngan NSW, to Rob and Toni Buckley, Trafalgar.
Mr Buckley said when they watched the dog during its demonstration, the were impressed by its excellent skills. He said they knew it was the one they wanted to take home and would have paid more if needed.
It was the first time Mr Kennedy has topped the Casterton event. He said Burgess, nick-named Burge, was named after rugby league player Sam Burgess because it was born not long after South Sydney Rabbitohs’ grand final win.
Mr Kennedy said it was a nice type, strong, young dog with huge potential, which backed and barked freely in yards and has cover in paddock. He was by Jendara Rex and out of a home-bred bitch that together had produced “many champions”, including AKennedys Choker (last year’s Casterton Futurity Trial winner), and other auction dogs Benny, Junior, Boots and Foo.
In the auction, 51 of the 61 dogs offered sold with an average price of $3763.
This year the running total for the Casterton-based working dog auction passed the $2 million mark with the sale of lot 48.
It was a male, red and tan, 26 month-old Kelpie named Whitey, which was sold by John Ahern to GJ KM Trahar from Yahl, South Australia.
Also thrilled by the weekend’s events was Denis Connors. The sheep and cattle farmer at Nulla Vale, near Lancefield, had entered every year of the competition and this year has won the Fairfax Agricultural Media’s ‘Win A Casterton Kelpie Competition’.
“It’s terrific. I always wanted one of Joe Spicer’s dogs and now I will get one,” Mr Connors said.
“I’ve only got one dog at the moment and it’s only handy.
“I hope with this pup I’ll be able to draft sheep on my own again. The dog I’ve got at the moment isn’t powerful enough to do it alone.”
