How Waimate got its White Horse
Small towns across Aotearoa New Zealand have a habit of paying tribute to the things that define them. There’s giant fruit, fish, a carrot and even a can of L&P.
In Waimate, we celebrate the mighty Clydesdales that helped break in the land here, with a white horse on the hill overlooking town.
Long before tractors, cars and trucks arrived, horses powered everyday life. And that was something local couple Norman and Betty Hayman wanted people to remember.
Building the horse
Built in 1968, the idea took shape after the Haymans saw a Friesian cow statue in Holland and decided the Clydesdale deserved a similar tribute for its contribution to life in Waimate district.
The horse looks over town from Centrewood Park. The land had already been donated for ‘a lookout and a park’ by Jack and Janet Sutherland so Norman put forward his idea for a Clydesdale statue. In the end a statue was going to be too expensive, so the idea eventually evolved into the giant horse on the hill we see today.
In his own words, from notes he made at the time, Norman wrote*:
’I then came up with a plan of a silhouette, twice the size of a horse, in a concrete slab on its edge. There was still doubt about the size being sufficient. Time was going on and no monument.
‘I was given the idea of the White Horse of England, which I tried with wallpaper on the face of the hill. This was the start of the action, but the steep rocky face of the hill was too heartbreaking to smooth over. My next move was to the smooth valley close by, not so good for viewing, but where I could work myself. A load of plaster board scrap from the dump, laid in outline, proved the monument would be too small, but I was in business, and ordered 200 paving stones.’
Norman, Betty and a group of helpers spent three months laying 1,220 concrete slabs to form the horse’s outline. Its 2.5-tonne head was precast in Ron Hutt’s yard before being lifted into place.
The whole project cost $240, paid for by donations from farmers, teamsters and others who admired the old Clydesdale teams.
Norman building the horse in 1968.
A voice from the horse era
Below is an excerpt from notes Norman wrote about working horse teams in Waimate, taken from Explore Waimate.
Norman’s experience with horse teams began on his parents’ farm during his early school days at Studholme. He left school at 15 to work on the farm.
“I had to get up at 5.30 in the morning and bring the horses in to give them two hours of solid feeding and grooming. Then at eight o’clock sharp the chains were tightened and work began until noon.
“The horses had their own built-in time clock because they would always try to knock off one round before noon. At half-past five in the evening I would cover the horse up and sometimes head off for a dance.”
Norman later researched horse numbers with the Ministry of Agriculture. His findings showed that Clydesdales were well established in Waimate district before 1900.
By 1918 - the peak year for working horses in New Zealand - there were 351,544 draught horses nationwide, including 8,233 in the Waimate district. By 1921 the number had dropped to 319,034, and by 1965-66 no draught horses were listed at all.
“The terrific strength of the draught horses was clearly demonstrated to me when I purchased my first tractor,” Norman wrote. “Three horses could pull a dray load of shingle from the pit, but a presumably powerful tractor could not.”
(Taken from an Explore Waimate story written by Sue Francis, who thanks Norman Hayman’s daughter Edna Horsnell for access to her father’s personal scrapbooks, and Lloyd Kenyon’s story published in the Weekly News, 23 June 1969.)
One of the viewing platforms at Centrewood Park.
The hill today
From the top of Centrewood Park the views stretch from the Pacific Ocean across the plains to the Southern Alps. It’s also where visitors can see Waimate’s white horse up-close, stop for a picnic, or look out from the viewing platforms set into the hillside.
There’s a growing network of tracks making the hill one of Waimate’s most popular places for a weekend walk, run or bike. You can also drive to the top - it’s signposted from Mill Road.
The tracks are also the setting for the Veterinary Centre Whitehorse Big Easy, Waimate’s annual event for walkers, runners and mountain bikers.
Distances range from a 1.5km children’s event through to a 21km run and a 27km mountain bike ride for those keen to take on the full hill course.
Organisers say anyone who registers before 24 March will have their name printed on their race bib.
Entry fees from the event are reinvested into local community groups and projects, including ongoing development of the track network on the hill.
Sources.