Review: The Last Muster, by Carly Thomas

This review is from our monthly series of reviews by LIANZA members. Carly Thomas' The Last Muster is a nostalgic look at the history of mustering by horseback in Aotearoa and the important role that horses have played from the early European settlers, where every farm had at least one horse as they were necessary to muster stock in extreme weather conditions and impassable roads. Changes to farming practices, as well as the concern about the environment, have all placed demands on rural living. Thomas spent a year mustering on 11 stations in both the north and south islands, from Greenstone Station in Otago to Ngahiwi Station in Gisborne, ending on the remote Bluff Station on Pitt Island. 

Thomas is a journalist by profession as well as a keen horsewoman. She jumped at the opportunity to explore the tradition of mustering and taking time out from a busy world, making observations as she went.

“On that muster, I got to see the true worth of a horse. We were doing things the old way, on horses bred for the terrain. It was slower – we waited, we watched the movement of the sheep – but we could also sidle into places that could never have been reached on a bike. And we still got the job done efficiently and the mob was in the yards right on time. What’s more the sheep were moved without stress.” 

In 1814, when missionary Samuel Marsden brought horses to Aotearoa, Ngapuhi was the first tribe to have horses. Since then, Māori have had a long relationship with horses as they were their main form of transport. Māori owned more horses than local Pākeha communities, naming them hoiho . By 1911, there were 404,284 horses in the country, mostly Clydesdales used for ploughing, while thoroughbreds and standardbreds were used for mustering and transporting goods. In 1910, tractors arrived, followed by quad bikes in the 1970s and the number of horses declined to just over 33,500 in 2022. Thomas wanted to learn if the use of horses for mustering was really a thing of the past or were they still significant and practicable. In her view, the way of life, the people and the pleasure of mustering on horseback will continue as “it works on a practical and a spiritual level”.

Horses can go to places that motorbikes and quad bikes can’t. Harsh land and bush/terrains are difficult to navigate so horses are perfect for reaching those hard-to-find places where sheep and cattle freely roam. The muster is important to carry out vaccinations, docking and lambing. It’s clear how much Thomas loves her horses; she describes the importance of establishing a relationship with trusted and close companions. Some of the musters were not for the fainthearted but Thomas was determined to work hard to prove worthy of her fellow musterers.

All the musterers that Thomas worked with are hardy, passionate and ‘salt of the earth’. Her vivid descriptions portray how the communities work together, the camaraderie, sharing stories and food, hard yakka, and a way of life with its own rhythm.

At Ngahiwi and Awapapa Stations Carly meets Alex Campbell who had known the late Paul Johnson, a legendary horse breeder who dedicated his life to breeding a good line of East Coast horses and is an important part of Aotearoa’s equine history: 

‘What we are looking at here is very special,’ said Alex. ‘These are true East Coast stationbreds. What that means is that in these bloodlines are those original characteristics. These horses have been bred to withstand the environments of sheep and cattle stations. They are a fact of life and a necessity up this way, and their strength, stamina, honesty, intelligence is what the stockmen relied on. They trusted their lives to these horses, and that’s what we are trying to save.’

This is a book for those who love and honour horses, and value the role they played in New Zealand’s high country life and work. Reviewed by Bernadette Cassidy