The Man from Snowy River Ride: Australia and New Zealand's High Country

If you grew up anywhere near a horse-loving household, you know the image already even if you cannot place where from. A lone rider on a mountain pony, tearing down an impossibly steep slope after a mob of wild horses, while grown men who should know better sit and watch him go. That is "The Man from Snowy River," and you can go ride the actual country it came from.

This is the high country of Australia and New Zealand, cattle-station and cattlemen territory, and it is the closest thing the Southern Hemisphere has to the American West. It is one stop in our series of the world's most unique horseback rides.

First, an honest bit of trivia

"The Man from Snowy River" started as a poem by Banjo Paterson in 1890, and most people know it from the 1982 film. Here is the part that surprised me: the film was not actually shot in the Snowy Mountains. It was filmed in the Victorian High Country near Mansfield, a couple of hundred kilometers to the west, mostly because that is where the producer's wife's family had lived for generations and it was simpler to make. So the legend lives across the whole Australian Alps, and the brumbies, the wild bush horses that gave the story its romance, still roam the real Snowy Mountains over in New South Wales.

You will not ride the brumbies. They are wild, hardy, free-roaming, and genuinely controversial in Australia right now over how they are managed. But you may well see a mob in the distance, and knowing they are out there is part of the feeling.

The horse you actually ride: the Australian Stock Horse

The horse under you is the Australian Stock Horse, sometimes called the Waler. The breed traces back to the very first horses brought to Australia in 1788, and the name Waler comes from New South Wales, where they were originally bred. These are tough, sure-footed, sensible horses built for exactly this kind of steep, unforgiving mountain work, and Australia is rightly proud of them. If you ever saw the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, that was a hundred and twenty Australian Stock Horses ridden into the stadium to a specially written version of the "Man from Snowy River" theme. That is how much this horse means to the country.

Australia: ride a real cattle muster

The genuine version of this trip is a mountain cattle muster, and a handful of real high-country cattlemen families still run them and let you come along. Families like the McCormacks and the Lovicks have worked this country for generations, some of them were the crack riders in the actual films, and every summer they push cattle up onto the high plains and back down again on horseback.

A multi-day muster is the real deal. You are in the saddle for hours across alpine ash and snow gum country, moving real cattle over real mountains, camping or staying in mountain huts, and hearing the stories from the people whose grandparents lived them. One classic ride climbs Mt Stirling to Craig's Hut, the cabin built as the film set for the 1982 movie. Bushfire destroyed it in 2006 and it was rebuilt, and the view from up there is worth the whole trip.

Season is the Southern Hemisphere summer, roughly November through April, because the high country is under snow the rest of the year.

New Zealand: the Southern Alps and a clifftop station

Cross the Tasman and the high country changes character entirely. New Zealand's version is greener, more vertical, and almost unfairly cinematic.

The heart of it is Glenorchy, at the head of Lake Wakatipu near Queenstown. The operator there, High Country Horses, has been riding this valley since 1987 with access to a hundred thousand acres of it, and you cross braided glacial rivers with the Southern Alps standing over you the whole way. This is Lord of the Rings country, quite literally, and it welcomes complete beginners for a couple of hours or experienced riders for a multi-day backcountry trek.

For the luxury end, there is Rosewood Cape Kidnappers, a genuine working sheep and cattle station spread across six thousand acres on a Hawke's Bay clifftop, wrapped around one of the best lodges in the country. You can ride the property, and you can watch a real high-country muster the New Zealand way, with the dogs and the shepherds doing what they do every day of the year.

Who this is really for

The honest part, same as every post in this series. A multi-day Australian cattle muster rewards confident intermediate riders and up. The days are long, the country is steep, and you are doing actual stock work, not following a nose-to-tail line. If that is you, there is almost nothing better.

If you are newer in the saddle, do not count this region out. Glenorchy in New Zealand and the shorter rides at Cape Kidnappers welcome all levels, so you can ride the same jaw-dropping high country at a pace that suits you. Season for both countries is the Southern Hemisphere summer, roughly October or November through April.

How we book it

The real cattlemen operators are small, family-run, and they fill their limited spots early, and matching the right ride to your honest riding level matters a lot in country this steep. That part is mine to handle. Tell me whether you want the working muster in Australia, the Southern Alps in New Zealand, the luxury station stay, or some combination, and how rugged or how gentle you want it, and I will build the right trip around you.

If a hundred and thirty years of legend and a week in the saddle in some of the most beautiful mountains on Earth sounds like your kind of trip, email me or send me a DM and let's talk. And if you are still weighing the high country against the rest of the world, the full series recap puts every ride in one place, sorted by skill level and dream.

Talk soon, Cindi