AFTER 30 years retired cattle farmer Bruce Witherow has ticked an item off his bucket list with a return to horse riding.

On Friday the 92–year–old rode Oliver the chestnut cob, a type of short–legged riding horse, at the Kurrajong Park Equestrian Centre on Shanley Street, South Wangaratta.

he started to ride when he was six years old, but the last time he was on horse was in 1989.

When he was young his family would farm dairy cows, but Mr Witherow eventually moved to beef cattle and sheep.

He remembers from an early age standing on a box to put harnesses on the Clydesdales they would use for ploughing and seeding paddocks.

Each morning he would wake up at 4:30am to milk 51 cows, but this would often result in him falling asleep at school, only to be woken by the teacher hitting his desk with a cane.

After finishing school in Murmungee he attended Wangaratta Tech School on Docker Street in 1945.

He still lives in Murmungee with his beagle, where, according to Mr Witherow, he cooks what he likes, including steak, lamb and trifle, and definitely no rice or spaghetti.

He has made his own red–painted coffin out of plyboard and is adamant he won't enter a retirement village.