Snowy River Riding Country

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If you’re a rider and you haven’t been thrilled and charmed by the story of the colt from old Regret who goes to run with the brumbies in Banjo Patterson‘s “Man from Snowy River” with its description of the countryside near Kosciusko that will make your toes curl, then you have no idea what you have been missing. If you’re a rider and you have heard the poem and you haven’t been riding in the Snowy River region then why not?

There can be no better description of the countryside, but I’ll give you my own less emotive more practical review (I’m not quite Banjo or Clancy.). Kosciusko, Australia’s tallest mountain, and the Snowy River region is rocky, grey, misty country. It’s quite still, the mist makes things feel close and sound is muted. In the valleys the trees stand with their branches linked together around alpine streams and on the high plains there are wildflowers, low bushes, high grasses and gracefully drooping silverly grey eucalypts. Coming down over a ridge and feeling your horse open up beneath you as he’s totally foot-sure over country you’d be too scared to run down on two thick legs is exhilarating, as is charging through an alpine river. Wild brumbies still live on Mount Tantangara. People still work up here as drovers and station hands. See the film if you’re not inspired yet.

It’s up to you how authentic you want your Snowy River experience to be. You can do anything from a day ride to a week of horse trekking and camping, complete with drovers stories by the campfire, damper and billy tea, to joining a drove and escorting cattle or working on a station. There are several working stations up here that make extra money by running tours in the off season so if you really want to experience what it was like to be a bushman you can get pretty close. One of the oldest stations still working is Reynella just out of Adaminaby, Australia’s highest town: www.reynellarides.com.au

5 / 5 Review by member halleyarcher