Cochran HorseTreks

Peter Cochran is a fifth-generation Mountain cattleman who has ridden the Snowy Mountains his whole life, and has run Cochran Horse Treks from Yaouk — 22 kilometres north of Adaminaby on the Murrumbidgee River — since 1998. Rides work out of a chain of camps across Kosciuszko National Park: Old Snowy Horse Camp at the park's northern end, Bullocks Hill on the high plains, the Tom Groggin and Geehi horse camps in the south-west, and The Pines Lodge at Currango Homestead. Treks run from a two-day novice program through three-day rides to a full seven-day trek that follows a 150-kilometre route to Corryong for the Man From Snowy River Festival, covering upward of twenty kilometres a day, around five hours in the saddle. Horses are hand-picked for temperament and put through a trial period before any guest rides them. Cochran's own description of the business rests on two things — 'great horses and great food' — delivered from camps he says sit comfortably into the mountain environment rather than against it. First-aid-qualified staff and emergency equipment travel with every ride. The operation trades directly on the country's own legend: 'The Man from Snowy River legend lives on at Cochran Horse Treks.'