Stockman gets the job done!
    Carl keeping an eye on the chickens.....  Rowldy & Dasha the Briard, enjoying their time off  Limousine cow as I used to keep on my farm  A fine example of a Simmenthal bull  Tag and me,now a few years ago.....  Old Gold, my first horse in my career as race-horse owner and trainer  Old Moss, another one of my favorites! | Welcome to my site!Please find below a brief history of what I have done in my life. Although officially retired I don't feel ready to just sit and do nothing.... I thoroughly enjoy what I have been doing during my life and am still as passionate about farming, horses and dogs as ever. My latest work as an animal trainer for the Hobbit movie is unfortunately finalizing in August and currently I am looking for a work-place and environment that is wanting someone who is mature, active and fit, experienced, responsible and has a lot of expertise under his belt in the agricultural and equine industry. I feel that I will be bringing valuable things to my new work place and am excited to learn new things. After al, one is never too Old! to learn Wishing you an enjoyable read! About Les Old Les comes from a long line of accomplished horsemen and stockmen with roots starting in Australia (with as a dubious claim to fame a connection to Ned Kelly via his grandmother's brother, who used to ride with Ned Kelly). Les' grandfather was a drover, his father was a shearer and a farmer doing the work around the land on horse-back. Horses were an important part of their lives and Les grew up eating (not literally!), breathing and riding horses from the moment he can remember! Les started working at the age of 15 in a trotting stable driving trotters and then went on to following in his fathers footsteps and went shearing. The following years saw Les working for many years as a stockman on farms all over the King Country in New Zealand. His working career starts in the Waikato working as a shepherd, went on to be promoted as head-shepherd, and then on to managing 3000 acres at the age of 21 overseeing 3 staff. Les was married to Barbara with whom he had 2 children, 2 sons and one daughter. Barbara sadly passed away in 1993 of Mutiple Sclerosis. One of Les' sons, Stephen was the initiator of the big New Zealand trek, to raise awareness and do fundraising for MS. Then Les went on to a bigger job and was head shepherd on a sheep-station of 8000 acres (Kitahi) for Landcorp and then progressed to a managing position overseeing between 14 to 25 people while developing the station. This job involved running 8000 ewes plus replacements and fattening the lambs, 1000 breeding cows plus their replacements, and also fattening 500 bullocks at the same time. Other careers: Stockagent and auctioneer for Wrightson NMA fo 9 years. Les says: I enjoyed this work very much because I travelled quite a lot, mostly by plane to cover the large distances of my work territory. I liked the challenge of working with large numbers and finding solutions - fast - for potentially precarious situations. At one occasion in 1989, when there was a drought, we had 10.000 heads of cattle over a period of 8 weeks that needed accommodation. I would buy 1000 at a time and then market them. Despite the draught in the Hawkes Bay and Gisborne, I managed to find homes where there was water for them with farmers, usually within 24 hours of sale. Around that time it was very difficult for people to shift cattle because of the lack of water and understandibly people were not keen to take on extra cattle. For me, to be able to this so fast was possible because I had build up a solid network of contacts and had established a good relationship with the people I have been working with, both my clients as well as for the people I have been working for. In my line of work it is important to create a good working relationship, and in the farming community this is based on trust, reliability and quality. Elders Australia I worked as a stock agent and as an auctioneer for 3 years and did very much the same kind of work as I did for Wrightsons. I also sold real estate for Elders specializing in mainly bigger farms. Private agent I left Elders and decided to work as a private agent for 4 years, then decided to have a break and start farming, using all the experience and expertise I gained over the years. My farm was 900 acres and mainly kept paddock bulls, Limousine, Simmenthals, Friesians usually about 500 heads. Because of my horsey background, I always did the stock-work on horse-back. Dogs and dog training I started working with dogs after I got inspired by Les Knight, New Zealand's top dog trial man at the time and Bill Donaldson and Barney Strong. Paul Sorensen another well-known dog trainer taught me how to break in dogs, in my case I specialized working with Huntaways and Heading dogs. Dogs became my passion and I started breeding, trialling both Huntaways and Heading dogs and I became quite successful and had a lot of fun. I won many prizes with my dogs and eventually became President of Aria Dog Trial Association which I ran for 3 years. I organised the trials, setting up the courses, getting the sheep and organising the volunteers to help it make run smoothly and successfully. Currently I am looking at training Briards as shepherding dogs after my new partner introduced me to this wonderful versatile dog. Horses, training and racing I got interested in racing through my father. He had cancer and decided that he wanted to have something that would give him some pleasure and something to look forward to. He asked me to buy him a horse, so it was to me to find something that was suitable. My father was a poor loser so that's why I really made an effort to get something that would make him happy, very important given the fact that he only had a limited time to live. The horse I bought him was a big chestnut, we named him Old Gold. We had a lot of fun with him and he won the Japan Handicap in Ellerslie in 1984, so not bad for a start! Then I got stung by the "horse-bug" and never looked back (that's why I am still working haha). They say there are the horse people and the other kind. Guess which one I belong to! :-) I bought and sold horses and raced, got my owner trainer license when I bought Old Gold. Some of the horses I owned and trained were Old Moss, Old Gold, Dane Ruler, Red Quest, Accountable, Apache Chief. Some of the horses went overseas: Riverside who later went to Macau, Tell The Time and Babaliscious went to Singapore. All the horses I owned and trained were winners. Now the most exciting bit of my career! Life is full of surprises! My relationship with my second wife had ended and with that found all the that I had worked for had mysteriously disappeared... I was at a loss what to do next, when I got a request from my son Stephen Old, who is a chip of the old block where it concerns horses. Steven runs the animal department for Peter Jackson'sThe Hobbit movie and was looking for someone who had experience with not just horses, but also other farm animals to help him with the training and running the horse-department. We acquired 81 horses for the movie, a large number of them needed re-schooling and all of them needed either breaking in and or desensitizing. Since there were shots going to be taken at close range with the camera, men in helicopters at times only 50 meters above the horses, it was of paramount importance that they were 100% safe! We were asked to ride on ridges of mountains with a deep drop on one side at one time, which we as doubles had to do as it was too dangerous for inexperienced riders. Also he horses needed to get used to being around fires, wear costumes etc, all of which needed experienced horse-people like myself to deal with any issues that came up. We were also appointed to teach the actors, both dwarfs and giants to ride the horses and show them how to ride in certain formations. Most people were novices when they started, both with horses or with the riding side. One of the nice aspects of this work was that I got to meet people like Billy Conolly, Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellen aka Gandalf. All the actors in the movie needed riding doubles, and I was honored to be Dori's riding double. The character of Dori which is played by Mark Hadlow. Because of the nature of the movie, we travelled both in the North and South Island with the the horses. This was quite a big operation as we were on the road with 45 horses... In the movie are also my 2 dogs, Carl who is a well-trained heading dog and Rowldy, a young Huntaway, offspring of one of the Huntaways I had bred in the past. Rowld is still in training. Recently I got interested in Briards - a French shepherd dog who possesses a lot of versatility. The girl on the picture belongs to my new partner. Briards come from France and they are very versatile and highly intelligent dogs. I am considering training Briards as well as from what I have seen, certainly this one shows a lot ability! Wrap up time I hope that what I have written gives you a better picture of who I am. This is my first website and as I am still a newbie on this front, I welcome any comments! :-) Now that my work with the Hobbit movie is coming to an end, it is time to start looking for another work place. I would like to see myself working in an environment where I can put all my skills, experience and expertise to good use. I you would like to have a talk with me than feel free to contact me via e-mail: cobber.old@hotmail.co.nz or cell: 0064 (0) 27248 2667 |
