KEY POINTS:
Auckland philanthropist-turned-high-country farmer Christine Fernyhough says she owes her life to her young black and white heading dog, Midge.
Ms Fernyhough was mustering when a cow, upset by being separated from her calf, charged and then trampled her, breaking her leg in three places and crushing her ankle.
Defenceless, Ms Fernyhough lay there as her dog flew at the cow and distracted it.
"The heifer was just circling around for another go when Midge attacked, drove her off, and saved me," said Ms Fernyhough.
"She then managed to bail the heifer up for long enough to give me time to haul myself along the ground to the truck."
Ms Fernyhough was on her own apart from Midge and her other dog, Pearl, and had no way to call for help.
In tremendous pain, she then had to haul herself into the truck and drive from way out the back of her 4000ha Canterbury station, on the near-freezing morning, to the homestead.
Mustering newborn calves, especially when their mothers are young and overprotective, is a dangerous business, but Ms Fernyhough was following the rules: never get between a calf and its mother.
But when a confused calf started trotting after Ms Fernyhough rather than its mother, the heifer charged.
The next step was to get back to the homestead five huge paddocks away over rough terrain with a broken and rapidly swelling leg.
Castle Hill Station, which lies halfway to Arthurs Pass and has the highest permanently inhabited homestead in the country, is tough country.
The weather was bitterly cold, with snow predicted down to 400m.
Snow, the farm manager, was away for the day.
Ms Fernyhough, a grandmother of nine, knew if she stayed where she was she could die from exposure before her partner, John Bougen, decided she had been out too long and set out to find her.
Gritting her teeth at the pain, she hauled herself into the cab of the truck, and holding her crushed foot in both hands, forced it around until it would rest on the accelerator.
She then drove home, changing gears and dragging herself out of the truck to open and close four gates on the way.
By the time she arrived at the station woolshed, Ms Fernyhough was almost fainting with pain and had to be taken by ambulance to Christchurch Hospital.
Specialists found her leg badly broken and her condition so unstable they decided not to operate and reset the bones until later next week.
She has now returned to Castle Hill, where she will be nursed by her daughter Kate and friend Riki.
Ms Fernyhough, who bought Castle Hill Station three years ago, was always determined to be a proper farmer.
Every day she sets out in the morning, often mustering on foot with Midge and Pearl.
This month she launched her book, The Road to Castle Hill: A High Country Love Story, which details the joys and difficulties of taking on such a marginal property. It went straight on to the best seller list.
