Rancher’s Daughter Goes To The Show

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 2

Rancher’s Daughter Goes To The Show

An American cattle rancher’s daughter spent the afternoon at the Canterbury A. and P. Association’s show yesterday and voted it the highlight of her New Zealand tour. But it was the ring, with all the horse events, rather than the cattle shed that held the attention of Miss Amy Davis, of Horse Creek, Wyoming.

“I think the Canterbury horses are beautiful animals and the riders are of as high a standard as most I have seen jumping in the United States," she said. ‘The children, who sit so straight on their ponies, are delightful.” She had not seen jumping under F.E.I. rules before. “I had heard about New Zealand horses in Australia and was told to be sure to back one in the Melbourne Cup," she added. Miss Davis. who has owned as many as four horses at a time for working her father’s cattle, does not compete in shows herself. Frontier Days “The nearest I do is to ride in the processions on Frontier Days, when all the old carriages, buggies and carts are brought out from the past to take part in the big parade,” she said. These processions open the five-day programme of bulldogging, steer-roping, Indian squaw races, amateur and professional events for riding bucking horses, wild-horse racing and all the fun that goes into a true Wild West rodeo. But the wide open spaces claim only about half Miss Davis’s time. She alternates the cow girl’s life with secretarial posts in cities for variety. At the White House During the Eisenhower Administration she worked at the White House in Washington, keeping records of Presidential appointments of Ambassadors, Supreme Court Judges and other “top brass." In Wyoming she is a journal clerk at the State Legis-

lature in Cheyenne, the capital city. "Wyoming is a large State with a small population and we get through our business quickly,” she said. “The State Legislature meets for only six weeks every two years.” After a legislative session, back she goes to the ranch at Horse Creek, 32 miles from Cheyenne. “But don’t imagine life is dull at Horse Creek. We have many vistors calling in —and there are still cattle thieves in Wyoming to keep life quite exciting,” Miss Davis said.