OUR LIFE IN THE COUNTRY: FULL CIRCLE
After more than 20 years apart, this couple remarried and returned to the farm he never left.
TIM AND JO O’BRIEN live at Boggy Creek, a 200-hectare cattle and sheep property west of Tumbarumba on the western edge of the NSW Snowy Mountains. They first lived here together in 1989 as 21-year-old newlyweds, but separated after two years. “It was a lack of maturity and foolishness that saw our marriage end,” says Jo. “It was something that we both came to regret.”
Twenty years on they met again at a horse event. “I used to think about Tim often, about what could have been and what should have been,” Jo says. “To bump into him like that and have a chance to say sorry for what had happened was amazing.” In 2014, Jo and Tim walked up the aisle for the second time on what would have been their 25th wedding anniversary. “Some things are meant to be,” says Tim.
Today, like many farmers, they wear several hats. In addition to the farm, the couple run an Angus stud, teach horsemanship clinics and put on a horse show that taps into Tim’s bush heritage and showcases his horsemanship.
The 53 year old has ridden all his life and worked for many years as a stockman in the Snowy Mountains. He was a regular on the stockman challenge circuit, reaching the finals of the Man From Snowy River Challenge six times, always on a different horse. “I reckon it’s the greatest stockman competition in Australia in that you have to have so many aspects of horsemanship, from being able to work cattle with your horse to whip cracking,” he says.
He also spent four years as the choreographer of The Man from Snowy River re-enactment and rode in the Spirited: Australia’s Horse Story show in Canberra.
Joining him in the arena these days is Jo’s 15-year-old daughter Harriet Shaw. “She’s very much a country kid, loves animals, willing to try anything, independent and loves helping out,” says Tim.
During the show season, which runs from September to June every year, everyone is run ragged keeping the property and the animals — 13 horses, six working dogs, Ninnie and Knuckles the mules, Clayton the goat, Apache the miniature horse, Errol the pig, and Harriet’s dog Bindy — in peak condition. In winter, the focus shifts towards maintaining the farm, feeding the stock and doing training sessions for the next season of Boggy Creek shows. “Only five of our horses perform,” says Tim. “Our older horses live here in retirement and we have some young ones coming up.”
Tim and Jo work together on most aspects of the business. “We work well together and share the same passion for life and living on the land,” says Tim.
For more information, visit boggycreekshows.com.au
JO I grew up on a cattle and sheep property at Cudgewa in north-east Victoria. Horses were always part of my life: we have a family photo of Dad sitting on his horse with me as a newborn on the front of the saddle. I learned to ride at about four, rode for my pony club until I was 17, and when I finished school went to work on a thoroughbred stud. I started nursing, but quit after a couple of months to work as a jillaroo at a property called Clear Springs in Holbrook in NSW.
Years later, I went back to finish my training and worked as a nurse. My horse Misty, an Arab quarter horse cross mare that my father bred and broke in for me when I was 13, came to Clear Springs with me and she was the horse I was riding at the gymkhana in 1987 when I first met Tim. I thought his horse was very cute, a buckskin mare named Minstrel. He had a great smile and amazing blue eyes — Tim, that is — and I was very impressed. We married a couple of years later and lived in the same house we live in today. The convention at that time was that once you were married you had children and became the homemaker. With my upbringing and having worked alongside men as a jillaroo, I felt lost, as though I didn’t belong, and I left.
After our separation I travelled around Australia, working in shearing sheds as a rouseabout. I remarried and had a daughter, Harriet, who’s now 15. As fate would have it, 20 years later, I crossed paths with Tim again. With a lot of life experience behind us and a second chance at love; here we are today. Coming back to our house after all those years away felt like coming full circle. I really am the luckiest woman in the world to get a second chance at love.
We work really well together. Tim is very talented and has an amazing affinity with horses, plus he’s a great teacher, the way he imparts his knowledge and explains things. He’s very well respected.
Thirty years ago as a young, newly married couple we were struggling to make an identity. Here we are now, running a farm and a tourism business. It’s amazing what can happen. >
“Tim is very talented and has an amazing affinity with horses, plus he’s a great teacher, the way he imparts his knowledge and explains things. He’s very well respected.”
TIM I’d always wanted to farm and bought Boggy Creek, a section of my father’s 550-hectare property Pound Creek, from him in 2003. Before that I worked with Dad and as a stockman for 25 years, taking cattle in and out of the high country for Ardenside Station, one of the largest cattle stations in the district that dates back to the 1800s. It’s something I did as a kid. Dad had some mountain lease country and we used to put the cattle up there just before Christmas to graze over summer.
When I finished school I tossed around the idea of becoming a vet because I’d always loved animals. Dogs and horses are a necessity on farms so you learn how to train them as part of the work. But I was sick of school and got the job at Ardenside. With mustering, you’d be away for eight weeks, just you, your horse and your dogs. It was the best job I’ve ever had.
I was working at home when I married Jo and had just started shearing. After we broke up, I was pretty shattered.
I started the Boggy Creek shows after
I was asked to do a demonstration with my horses at a tourist attraction near here. I’d competed in King of the Ranges and the Man from Snowy River stockman challenges for years. These competitions really test your horsemanship. It’s where I learnt to do tricks and show skills with my horses — go around in circles, change direction, pick up and carry things, lay down, rear up... I thought it was something I could do at Boggy Creek. The arena was there and we had a few hay bales for people to sit on. I had an idea of what to do, but it was very basic. At school I was shy, but I’ve learned to perform. It’s worked because I talk about what I know: farming in the high country, working dogs and horses. If I get a laugh from the crowd, I keep that joke.
“We work well together and share the same passion for life and living on the land.”