Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Australia: Alwyn's Life in the Saddle

Weeklytimesnow.com.au - Full Article

Johanna Leggatt | August 28, 2013

AWLYN Torenbeek "doesn't do anything in life that doesn't give him a natural high".

That's the words of the retired stockman and rodeo champion.

From rough riding horses in rodeo tournaments in his late teens to competing in endurance horse rides in his late 70s, Alwyn has always ripped off a fair chunk of life.

Such is the strength of the stories at his disposal, Alwyn finally relented to friends’ requests and shared his ups and downs with author David Gilchrist, in the newly released memoir Life in the Saddle.

“You have got to want to get out of bed every day when it is still dark to feed the horses,” he says.

“You have to want to live. It is no different from when you are riding a big bad horse that wants you off it, the thing is, you have to want to stay on.”

Alwyn has always wanted to stay on the horse, and as the wild and talented teen discovered, was pretty good at it, too.

He grew up mustering cattle on his parents’ property at Myella in Kokotunga, south-west of Rockhampton in Queensland, before leaving to work as a “taker” on a nearby station in his teens...

Read more here:
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2013/08/28/580793_country-living.html

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