Man from Snowy River Arena Spectacular – Australian Tour

To travel around Australia with an arena spectacular, working with some of Australia’s finest entertainers and horsemen was an exciting and rewarding experience. I was approached by Kevin Jacobsen from Jacobsen Entertainment and invited to fly to Sydney to attend a private meeting along with David Atkins (artistic director, 2000 Olympics) and Ignatius Jones (welcome segment artistic director, 2000 Olympics). We discussed the concept of putting together “The Man from Snowy River” into an arena show. I was involved in the Spectacular from the grass roots through to the final performance in Brisbane in front of a home crowd. The show travelled over 16,000 kms to standing ovations in every capital city.

The Arena Spectacular DVD was made in 2 days, no mean feat for such a stage production!

As Horsemaster for the show, my team and I sourced and supplied all the horses, riders, wagons, horse equipment, transport, saddlery, and demountable stabling, feed and veterinary.

The show itself was based on the legendary Banjo Patterson poem and inspired by Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. The Man from Snowy River poem tells the story of a young man, mounted on a small mountain horse, who rides out with crack stockmen in pursuit of a runaway horse that joins the wild bush brumbies. Because of his size and the size of his horse he is ridiculed at first but when the brumbies take to the wild and rugged mountain tracks, he and his horse grow in stature. This was a uniquely Australian Arena show, capturing the true essence of our country and its history.

The all-star cast included Georgie Parker, Steve Bisley, Charles “Bud” Tingwell, Lee Kernaghan and Martin Crews as “The Man”.