Modern day cowboy returns

Originally published in The Nyngan Weekly

Modern day cowboy Joe Guy has returned to Nyngan, years after he first rode to town before lone-riding more than 18,000 miles across five countries.

A kid from Sydney, Mr Guy didn’t get on a horse until he was a teenager, and was looking for a way out of the dangerous path he was walking down.

“My friends were all shooting up heroin and I thought, well, this is not the road that I want to take. So instead of putting a needle in my arm, I decided to walk away. And by walk away, I walked into a gym. The next day, started lifting weights, martial arts, and boxing for the next two years.”

Around the time he decided to walk away, the Man from Snowy River II was released in cinemas.

“I thought, what an amazing thing to do, get a horse and ride. So I thought, I’m going to do it, I’m going to buy a horse.

“That’s what brought me here all these years ago.”

After deciding he wanted to ride from Dubbo to Cairns, Nyngan was Mr Guy’s first stop, and one he very much needed.

“Nyngan is the first place I stopped on my ride. I came right out of Dubbo. I’m riding up the railway line and there’s these railway workers working, and next minute this bull terrier dog comes running towards my horses.

“I had my girths loose because my horse had recalls, so I’m sitting on my horse with a western saddle, which sat pretty good with this loose girth, then these dogs run after my horse and put ‘em sideways, onto the ground. So now my horse is running off, my saddle half off the ground and I’m pissed!” he laughed.

Though it was a rocky reception, some 30-years-ago, it was his time in Nyngan working on properties that helped him building the rapport with horses.

A few days after arriving in town he was offered a job mustering, which he said helped build his foundation knowledge that helped him get to where he is today.

He believes now that he learnt more in his first three months in Nyngan than he did in then 10 years prior.

“I got this horse, and she was a full nut job, she jumped into a cattle guard with me one day, all four feet. Out she came and near tore her hoof off, but I was 19, I didn’t know what I was thinking.”

As his confidence and experience with horses grew, he began to take on new challenges and said that his experience with people is what made his work with horses so successful. “I believe that every person is born with a gift, and it so happens to be that horses are mine.

“Everything that I've done taught me about horses. I learnt so much about horses by working with people because how the mannerisms are so similar, how the psychology, the reverse psychology works. When I was a booker in restaurants and a promotor for nightclubs, my job was to watch and read people to get them to the club and then to keep them in the club.

“My whole life was watching and reading people, so then when I found my gift with horses, it came so easy because when I'd watched the horse, go around a pen outside, and go oh yeah, there's a problem.

“Just like that. I could see what several trainers before me couldn't see because they just didn't have the ability to read them.”

Mr Guy now has hundreds of stories of breaking in horses that have been given up on by owners and turned down by trainers.

He breaks in these unworkable horses, saving them from death, and in return they carry him across countries.

It’s a symbiotic relationship that keeps Mr Guy enjoying what he does.

“I was doing 40-minute break ins, taking a horse that was unbroken and 40 minutes later, I’d be riding it around in a demonstration.”

Now days, Mr Guy breaks in “unbreakable” horses, and rides them thousands of miles. Along the way he’s met many people and many horses, always looking for the next horse to join his adventure.

His horses come from all over the place, with some coming from established connections and others from a friend of a friend of a friend.

When in need of a new horse, Mr Guy says he always buys them, never taking a gift.

“I always buy them, even if they’re cheap, because I’m worried that down the line when I sell that horse on, maybe for a profit, some guy is going to say well I gave you that horse, so I want some share of that money,” he laughed.

Mr Guy’s stories are never ending, he’s even published a book and tells his story at events alongside original songs, played on his trusty guitar.

“My story was just like every other kid you heard, alcoholic father, drug addict mother, bad home upbringing, all the rest of it, and now I've done 18,000 miles through five countries.

“I don't believe there's another person in the world that can say they've done that and on unrideable horses.”

Mr Guy had hoped to meet with Nyngan Pony Club members to speak with them about his story and endurance riding, but poor weather meant their Sunday meeting was cancelled. Despite this, he made time to meet with old friends Mick Kennedy, and Wendy and Rodney Robb for a cuppa and a yarn.

With more than 18,000 miles already under his belt, Mr Guy has set his sights on a new goal, 25,000 miles through 20 countries.

Regardless of where he rides, or how far, he said Nyngan has always stuck with him as a place he could call home.