Cowboy, take me away… but if you can’t, c’est la vie….
We’re just one week out from Melbourne Cup Day 2024 so what better time to write about my favourite things and the many layers behind them?
Unusual for a city-bred Melbourne person, I have a lifelong love for country living and all this lifestyle pertains to - including paddocks of horses and every other farm animal in between. As a lifelong reader as well, I “grew up on” The Silver Brumby, which played a big part in a holiday to the Snowy Mountains in 2016 with this trip resulting in a fun article for NewsCorp’s “Escape” section. The My Friend Flicka series and Black Beauty were also prime favourites as is Escape to the Country and for years, I loved country music.
Yet I spent the majority of my 20s struggling to reconcile how to choose between living and working a rural life (and I gave an equine TAFE course a try when living in Perth in 2002) or one of writing/reading, likely still living in the city. I realise now I could easily have reconciled the two not-so-separate ideas but the latter won in the end anyway and I don’t regret this choice.
A big reason for choosing my current lifestyle was living and working in Longreach in far north-west Queensland in 2004-2006. It was a wonderful town and a great period of fun friends and fun jobs; however, Longreach was isolated and very hot and forget escaping to shopping centres or beaches in the regularly 40+ degree heat although the local river offered some relief. So, I was determined not to live in such an isolated - and hot - place again.
These days, I would still choose the Escape to the Country house but with only one paddock (or two) rather than acres of land and not located many isolated kilometres from a major town or city but within an hour or two of such a centre. I would also continue to do what I know and love most: journalism and particularly real estate journalism.
Sadly, I don’t have the choice of living wherever I want to live anymore (do any of us?) with personal reasons likely to keep me chained to suburbia - and away from equine opportunities - for life. However, I’ve learned over the years that these restrictions can’t take away my love for all things rural and my love for animals, especially horses.
In another great reconciliation between writing, horses and property - my three favourite things - I’ve written plenty of articles on this combination which has been highly satisfying and reduced the discontentment of living in a non-dream home.
For example, one of my best jobs at The Longreach Leader was working at the local racecourse on race days. Along with spending time around both horses and friends, I would drive in a ute to the starting gates so I could photograph the horses as they jumped from the stalls. Then, for the mad dash in the ute to grab more photos as the horses crossed the finish line.
These days, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) cash rate announcement on Melbourne Cup Day is the perfect excuse for equine-based property articles including writing humorous equine phrases and headlines such as Homeowners' long faces as RBA refuses to rein in cash rate in 2023 and RBA cash rate canters to new lead - again in 2022. Who knew interest rates, especially rising ones, could be fun to write about?
By the way, I never have learned to ride horses well although the trainers at the former Royals Equestrian Centre did their best to teach me. They were also happy for me to write this property piece about their special home at the Brisbane Showgrounds for The Courier Mail in 2016. The same can be said for this article I wrote for The Herald Sun in 2018 about an historic 1890s home with a harness-racing stable complex going to auction in Melbourne.
So, yes, while the grass may be greener somewhere else, c’est la vie. I don’t have the dream Escape to the Country cottage or the farm animals but I keep close to the country by writing about my triple combination of favourite things and enjoying suburban life as best as I can with my cat, five goldfish and a lovely cottage garden (I feel another blog coming up soon on the latter so stay tuned!)
Thanks for reading!