For most of us, if asked what we would find more nerve-racking, being thrown around on the back of a bucking bronc or 700kg of muscle and menace, or watching a horse you train run, the answer would be the latter.
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Not so Robert Bandy.
The former cowboy-turned-horse trainer said he gets 10 times more nervous before one of his horses runs than he "ever did getting on a bronc or a bull or a bareback horse".
The nerves will be triply high on Tuesday with Bandy set to experience his first Melbourne Cup day as a trainer with three runners at Tamworth's meeting.
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Solvency will be first up in Race 2, and in what will be her first run for the Tamworth trainer.
"She's got a couple of issues that we're still working on but she's a lovely horse, kind, wants to be your friend," he said.
He also has Apailana, who is owned by his mum, and Dixie Bell engaged.
The latter provided Bandy with one of the biggest thrills he has experienced in the sporting arena when she won at Inverell last month.
His first winner as a trainer, he put it right up there with anything he achieved in his rodeo days (he captained the Australian and NSW rodeo teams and won National Finals buckles).
"That was something pretty special," he said joking that he felt like he had won The Kosciuszko (the $1.3 million race was run on the same day).
One of the things that made it so special was that he has had the four-year old virtually from the start. He broke her in, did her pre-training, and she was the first horse when he attained his trainers' licence 18 months ago that was given to him to train.
"That was pretty pleasing and something I sort of always wanted to achieve; take one from the very start right through to a winner," he said.
That was pretty pleasing and something I sort of always wanted to achieve; take one from the very start right through to a winner
- Robert Bandy
The former saddlebronc and bareback rider has been around horses most of his life. He broke in his first horse when he was eight, and has had something to do with pretty much every discipline.
But it wasn't until he reached a bit of a life cross-road that he thought about taking the leap into training.
"I was getting a bit older and sort of don't bounce as good as I used to, so I sort of had to find a new adventure and this has been great," Bandy said.
He had during his rodeo days always "liked to study horses and watch and sort of try and work out how I'm going to ride them or how I'm going to make them better", and having done a a bit of breaking-in and pre-training, it seemed a bit of a natural progression.
"It has been a real learning curve but I've enjoyed it," he said.
A big part of the reason for that is the challenge of working out a horses' quirks and how to get the best out of them. That is what drives him the most.
And while he doesn't scoff at "the easy ones every now and then" he does enjoys the ones "that are a bit of a challenge".
"It just makes you think outside the square and just do things a little bit different to others," he said.
"I find that more rewarding than most things."
Rodeo is still part of Bandy's life with his wife and daughter both barrel racers.
He too does do a bit of judging but hasn't jumped on a bronc for nearly two years now.
Every now and then when he sees "a good horse" the itch does come back but only briefly. He is loving the new direction that life has taken him.
