Lydia Thomson’s journey from jockey to successful shearer

North Canterbury shearer Lydia Thomson originally had dreams of being a jockey. Photo / SSNZ

A North Canterbury sports hope who once dreamed of riding winners on the racetrack has found her niche as a successful shearer.

Lydia Thomson, of Rangiora, abandoned dreams of being a race day jockey because of the effort needed to keep her weight down.

Thomson had fleeting moments of success with champion racehorse Winx (she was keen to point out she didn’t get to “personally” ride her) and was also a runner for horse trainer Gai Waterhouse in the Melbourne Cup, while also helping work racehorses in New South Wales.

As an apprentice jockey, Thomson had her weight down to 50kg, but said she didn’t feel healthy doing it.

So, two years ago, at the age of 29, she turned her back on the horse pre-training and spelling operation “The Hermitage,” at The Oaks, in NSW, and returned to North Canterbury, where she’d grown up on a small block around Oxford, with sheep, cattle, chooks, pigs – and horses.

It was here she caught “the shearing bug,” she said.

“I was doing some part-time shed-handing when a shearer from an outside gang was on lend for the day at one of our sheds.

“He just asked me what my background of work was, I told him I rode race horses in Australia, and had done some building work and labouring in New Zealand over the years.”

After hearing about Thomson’s background in physical jobs he suggested she become a shearer.

“I said - okay,” she laughed.

The same shearer took her under his wing and taught her “to shear from the get-go,” she said.

“I would go to sheds that he was working at and shear the last sides of some of his sheep during the runs and shear through the breaks.

“We would go and do some lifestyle blocks to get practice in too, or, when he wasn’t rostered on to work, we would set up a hungry stand in sheds the other guys from his crew were working,” Thomson said.

“Basically, any chance I had to get some practice in I took, until I was ready to get my own stand.”

Thomson’s now in just her second season and is loving it.

“It was great to find shearing because it’s the only job I’ve felt the same kind of passion towards as I did at the time I wanted to be a jockey.”

Thomson has applied this passion to competitive shearing with impressive results.

A win at the Reefton Shears

Ironically, her latest victory, at the Inangahua A and P Show’s Reefton Shears last Saturday, was at a racecourse.

Thomson travelled about 240km to find out there were only two in her grade.

She said was disappointed to be in a two-horse race and reckoned she didn’t “deserve” to claim another red ribbon under the circumstances.

However, she did make the trip worthwhile, by teaming up with senior shearer Jock Fitzpatrick to win possibly the first match between a machine shearing team and a blade shearing team.

They shore four sheep each and beat former New Zealand World Championships team members Allen Gemmell and Tim Hogg, both also from Canterbury.

Thomson also won a junior and intermediate clean shear a few hours later at the Ikamatua Hotel.

North Canterbury shearer Lydia Thomson in action. Photo / SSNZ

The beginnings of a successful career in shearing sports

The final at Reefton is Thomson’s eighth win in 12 junior shearing finals, in the three months of competition for the 2022-2023 season.

This is more than anyone else in any grade in about 30 shows to date on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar.

Her other wins were at shows in Rangiora, Ashburton, Christchurch, Nelson, Duvauchelle, Winton, and Tapawera.

They included national titles at the Corriedale Championships in Christchurch and the Crossbred Lambs Championships at Winton.

Thomson was also runner-up in the Waimate Shears’ New Zealand Longwool Championship and the Full Wool Championships at Lumsden.

Veteran shearer and competition organiser Sam Win encountered Thomson when he was running the Reefton competition.

“She’s pretty focused,” he said.

His own son, Jason, won the Reefton open title in a four-man final of 20 sheep - on a three-week trip home from Australia.

What’s next for Thomson?

While her victory at Reefton may have seemed small, with a couple of early-season national title wins under her belt, Thomson’s more than ready to tackle two major shearing and woolhandling events coming up.

She’ll compete at the Otago Shears, near Balclutha, this Saturday, and the Southern Shears, a week later on February 17-18, on her way to the famed Golden Shears in Masterton on March 2-4.

Thomson will be up against it at the Otago Shears, with more than 100 shearers and woolhanders expected at Carterhope Estate woolshed, Te Houka, about 12km south of Balclutha.

Many will have the same dream of winning at the Golden Shears in three weeks’ time.

“I’ll have to shear a lot better then than I did in my juniors at the weekend, that’s for sure,” she said.

The race is on.