A Guy and his Horses

This article is from the May 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

Let’s be real, the world’s been rocked in a big way recently. We’ve had to change plans, adapt and connect in ways we’ve never had to before. Most Aussie’s have adjusted to working from home, which although is a little inconvenient, it’s no match for the 13,500 kilometres that Guy McLean and his wife Emily have had to travel to ‘work from home’.

Performing on the road in the US for the past ten years, Guy is at home on the stage with his horses. But that has come to a sudden halt — and maybe even a reinback — as COVID-19 hit. Catching the next flight to his homeland, Guy had to leave his top horses behind in America and seek refuge at his 48-acre property ‘Nugget’s Rest’, near Maryborough, Queensland.

I had the privilege of speaking to Guy mid-way through his fortnight of isolation, to which — in true Guy fashion — he wasn’t too fazed by.

“When we get home from doing big shows in America, whilst we have people caring for the horses, there’s always plenty of work around to be done; fences, mowing, fixing various things, and usually we spend around two weeks at home doing that anyway — so it’s not too different,” Guy chuckles. “There is a lot going on, but at the moment there’s no place I’d rather be and we were very blessed to get home when we did. If we were on the next flight 12 hours later, we would have been locked up in a hotel for 14 days. I love my dear wife Emily very much, and I know she loves me, but being in a hotel room for two weeks and without the horses to keep me busy; well, we’d both go mad.

“We have two teams of horses over in the US and then I have 20 horses here at home. My good horses in America don’t really need the work, but back here I have young horses that will benefit from my time. So it was an emotional decision to come home, but it was also the government saying that they didn’t know how long this was all going to take, and I mean, we still don’t know. If I’m locked in any country, I want it to be my beloved Australia.”

Back in the US, Guy’s horses will be receiving the best of care and enjoying a break until he’s able to get back over there.

“We are sponsored by Priefert and they take care of my horses just as well as I care for them, so I knew they’d be safe, but it is always tough leaving them. I’m a very spiritual man, I pray every day and I ask God for his help to take care of my horses and look after them while I’m gone. Then I take a big deep breath and just believe that’s going to happen. Horses are fantastic and when you are with them; I think they are the most loving and caring type of animal, but a horse won’t fret for you like a dog. My horses wave to me as I drive down the road and say ‘see you when you get back dad’, and they aren’t too upset. They’ll be fat, sassy and happy when we get back!”

Some jobs are essential in this type of economy, and there are also non-essential jobs that can be done from the safety of your home. But where does that leave Guy, a performer that thrives on the relationship between himself, his horses and a crowd of thousands?

“We are certainly having to look at changing the way we do things. Three or four months ago I came home and did some lessons, but I can’t even do that at the moment and I certainly can’t do clinics. We are looking into doing online videos; Emily has bought a camera on lay-buy so we don’t have to pay for it just yet. I think it’s been good that we have been forced to do that because when you are doing what you’re normally doing, you don’t make time to do those things. I have so much to share, so it makes sense to capture it so people can hopefully learn from it.

“I feel OK about that shift at the moment. We had about ten jobs on the books that we have lost already and though that’s sad, I feel like we are all in the same boat. Two or two and a half years ago, while we were still sorting out visas, we had to knock back three big gigs and that was tough. These were the first big jobs that I was unable to fulfil and that hurt; I’m a man of my word. Another great trainer replaced me and while that weekend was on, my guts were churning — I was missing the bus. I don’t like everyone else being on the bus, singing the songs, while I’m at home. But with the current situation, we’re all on the same bus, and the bus is broken down on the side of the road, but we’re all in this together. I try to be a glass-half-full man and see the good in everything. I just hope that in five or ten years, we can look back and see the good that came from this, even though it’s very hard while you’re in the middle of it. I’m hoping we can look back and say 2020 was a great year for finding out ourselves the things that are important.”

My curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to know what type of training such a skilled horseman was going to be doing during isolation and social distancing.

“I have a wonderful Australian Stock Horse stallion here called Dreaming of Abbey and I want to work on his tempi flying changes,” Guy proudly explained. “We’re booked for a major event towards the end of this year, which we can’t announce yet — fingers crossed things will be back on the road then — and I’d love to ride him in the same arena as the world’s best dressage riders and show that his changes are at a higher level. Of course, we’ll also be working on his haunch turns, and his stops and turns for cattle work. He’s an all-round horse and I want to tune him up for that and his bridleless and saddleless work. I’ve got some babies of his that are coming along and I’ve just started riding them. You get excited when you first start riding your stallion but it’s when you ride their babies you see how great they are. I’ve worked with three of his youngsters today and I had a smile on my face.

“I mean, horses don’t understand what we say, but I talk to them a lot and they just smile at me with their eyes. I tell my young horses ‘if you can get good and can do things that no other horse in the world can do, I can keep you forever. You’ll never go hungry, you’ll never go cold, and you’ll always be taken care of.’

“And once they become one of my great performance horses, they become like a piece of gold. And what do you do with a piece of gold? You keep it shiny and hide it away from everyone. I don’t work my good horses when they are at the perfect level.

“The great thing is that now I don’t have deadlines to get the horses ready for. I can work my young horses and when they tell me that they need rest, I can give them that time until they are ready again. I don’t have anyone pushing me to do incredible things. I find when I’m working in America and travelling around, I pick up things that are new — not so much from other trainers but more so from being open-minded in my horsemanship. I’m starting them now and by the fourth day, I am riding them bridleless and working my liberty horses off of them. The horses are learning to back up, stop, and turn quicker and better than before, so I get excited to come home and put that into my young horses here. That’s the thing I love about horsemanship. As long as I stay mentally and emotionally sane, my horsemanship will continue to grow until I am an old man.”

An evolving business, with ever-growing horsemanship skills, I wondered if we are going to see any new tricks, or changes, once Guy gets back on the road...

“If I go to a restaurant and I get a fantastic meal, I’m gonna be disappointed if I turn up again three weeks later and my meal doesn’t taste good. As a performer, it’s very important for me to remember where I have come from, and what excited people in the beginning; and that was me riding a four-year-old stallion, saddleless and bridleless around shows, reciting poetry. Now, I have four or five horses that work at liberty, one that canters backwards, canters in place and one that side passes over the other laying down. But what people loved, in the beginning, was one man who couldn’t wait to get his hands on his horse in the morning and was sad to walk away from them in the evening — that connection and desire to be with them.

“I see a lot of other entertainers where it’s all about the tricks, whereas I’m more about the emotional attachment and the lessons they give me every day. I have people quite often say that my shows are never the same, but when you are working with horses at liberty, it can never be the same. I rub my hand on their head before we enter the arena and say ‘you give me everything that you are, and be who you are.’ There are one or two horses in the team that think they are very funny and they like to change things up. My little gelding, Denny, he’s been known to side pass and then step forward and sit on the horse that’s laying down or jump over the top of him with a smile on his face as he does it. It’s those things that I love. Twenty years ago I’d take that out of a horse, and now it’s incredibly important, it’s like having a great actor, so my shows will always be different.”

Guy’s connection with his horses and their personalities isn’t the only thing that sets his shows apart from the rest. Years of performing have taught Guy to read the crowd and adjust his performance as it happens.

“Back when I first started at 21, I’d take Nugget along to bush poetry — and the reason I did that was ‘cause I was too nervous to speak if I didn’t have my horse with me — and I wouldn’t see anyone in the crowd. But now I can see the crowd and demographic, and I can change my performance in an instant. If it was a choreographed show, I could miss that. I want people to go home feeling like I was talking to them and that I’d invited them into my world.

Although I will evolve, I never want someone to come up to me and tell me I’ve changed. I want to be better, but in more of an evolution.

“When I first started I was just Guy McLean from the bush and I thought no one would care what I say,” Guy reflects. “But now, I have really learnt how important my words are. I try to be careful about what I say, and the emotions I convey, because of how they impact people. I’ve become a role model for the people in the horse industry, so I need to keep in mind who I am and what I do. Sometimes I’ve just done a two-hour signing and I’m just leaving the arena and someone right up the back whistles me over, which I hate because I am not a dog, but I put a smile on and canter back over because there might be a child sitting there that’s going to remember if I just ignore that and walk out of there. There are those types of pressures which I realise are very important.

“Before it was much more about me and my horses, I was in the industry for what they gave me. There’s nowhere else I would be, you know, you could give me a hundred million dollars this day and I wouldn’t take it if you said I had to give away my horses. Now, it’s about giving back to the horses and giving back to the new generation. Probably the biggest thing that scares me about COVID-19, isn’t the fact that we are losing work or that times are gonna be tough for a while, or even the fact that I might catch the disease — even though that’s really scary — but the scariest thing for me is that people might start saying this is really too difficult and put down their desire to be around horses.

“I want there to be more horses, and more people loving them and more kids hanging around their necks. I know right now, if I didn’t have my horses I wouldn’t be nearly as comfortable or as sane as I am at this moment; they bring so much joy and steadiness to my life. You get on the internet or turn on the TV and it makes you a stirring wreck to see what’s going on. Yet I’ll go out for six hours and ride and all I can think about is how I can give a softer hand, a cooler breath and how I could be calmer and more of a leader for them. So when I come inside, that’s hours that I haven’t had to stress about this ever-changing world. I just hope that Australian’s find a way to keep their horses and see how valuable they are to keep us sane and help us through this time. Horses are not expensive for what they give us and I hope people can realise how blessed they are. And instead of worrying about the competitions you’ve missed, look back to the great things and the great rides you’ve had and the great moments you’ve had in your life. That, if it does nothing else, will bring a smile to your face and remind you that there’s more to come.”

I feel like anyone who has read this article needs to take these closing words from Guy and put it in their phone’s notes, or even write it on your wall in permo if you need to; “Take the pressure off yourself, go and spend time with your horse and be with them in the moment.”

Article: Rachel Clayfield

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