Rising StarMark Mangold

Article by AWSDM |

Living near the Nepean River, on the outskirts of Sydney, the current NSW Yard Dogs Rookie of the Year, Mark Mangold, has one hell of a story to tell. Growing up, Mark has always been involved with animals. His parents had a large performance horse stud in Mulgoa along with a farm east of Mudgee where they also ran a few sheep and cattle, working dogs were not a priority.

Following school, Mark went on to complete his saddlers trade, where his family bought a shop in Penrith that Mark ran. During this time Mark was also completing his plumbing trade so that he could go on to run the family business. This led to Mark doing one day at Tafe, a day plumbing, and the rest of the week working in the saddlery shop or shoeing horses. With such large numbers on the family farm, Mark quickly picked up the skill to help reduce some of the bills, leading to him shoeing professionally a couple of day a week. On the weekends, Mark spent most of them at Pony Club when he was younger, and later on he started competing in campdrafts and breaking in horses.

After a few years, Mark decided he wanted a change and enrolled in the NSW Police Force, where he moved to Sydney and worked for just under eight years.

Although his superiors were lining him up for a place in the mounted police because of his strong background with horses, Mark decided he’d rather become a detective, in which he enrolled and later found himself a job in the Darlinghurst detective division. Eventually moving up the ranks to the Criminal Investigation Branch, then onto Stock Squad for two years, where he was in charge on the North region, leading all the way up to the Queensland border. With all the travelling involved with the Stock Squad, Mark decided to leave the force and took over the family plumbing business alongside his sister.

During Marks time plumbing for the family business, him and his wife Maria ran and later purchased a piggery in Mulgoa, they later on sold that and bought their place now in Regentville. Upon moving, Mark and Maria purchased a few cows to eat down the grass. These few paddock ornaments quickly turned into them purchasing high end Jersey cow genetics and showing them, where Mark then went on to ship embryos in from Canada. Mark has since won Supreme Jersey Cow at Sydney Royal

Easter Show under his stud banner Diamond Hill Jerseys and Kelpies. These days, Mark still has a few cows but his interests have definitely turned towards his working dogs.

Alongside plumbing and showing Jersey cows, Mark has also successfully competed in woodchopping but in particular fishing. Starting out at club level, Mark quickly climbed the ranks where he became fully sponsored by Berkley, travelling all along the coast for fishing comps with features in magazines and television.

However, the travelling and juggling employees at work ended up becoming too much and Mark decided to slow down with the fishing competitions and concentrate on work.

Eventually, after all these achievements and hobbies, Mark decided to purchase a kelpie pup off of Bruce Richardson. A few years later he then purchased another from Victoria to train and trial with. Mark started taking her to local friend Maurice Metherall for some lessons and during this time he rekindled his friendship with Greg Walton whom he went to school with. After a few months of lessons, the urge to compete grew stronger every day and Mark saw a teaser for the Peterson Kelpies sale on Facebook where he spotted two year old Dice. With a Covid shut down announced the following day, the auction was off but later it was announced that the dogs would still be available via private sale and with that Mark inquired and later purchased her. Her first time working sheep with Mark went a little peer shaped, but after some time bonding, they have excelled in their trialling career. Mark has since purchased Wandabar Monkey to train up himself and compete.

Mark claims his mentors with his dogs would have to be the dog community as a whole, he finds he learns many tips and tricks through discussing how and what everyone’s dogs are doing with his friends at the trials. The group discussion and friendship would also have to be one of Marks favourite things about the trial scene. Mark also believes that attending schools is very beneficial as you sometimes forget things from the last one, and you can never stop learning. He has also spent some time working and contracting with his dogs and has found it has made a huge improvement with his dogs.

Mark’s ambitions with his dogs were to win Rookie of the Year, which he did in 2022. Now, he is striving to successfully complete a utility trial, as the first one he did didn’t quite go to plan.

Mark’s advice for anyone wanting to start out with working dogs is to, if you can, purchase one with a bit of age and training on its side. That way you can get in and start training and competing straight away, and then go on to bring a young pup up if you want. Mark’s final advice for anyone wanting to start training dogs or working in agriculture is to do it if you want to do it, and with the right attitude and work ethic everyone will be happy to help you out.