 Loving horses, including being an amateur jockey, in 1885 he joined the military volunteers and raised the West Camden Light Horse; he was a commissioned as a captain in 1886.In 1897 he raised the 1st Australian Volunteer Horse Regiment, and he was elevated lieutenant colonel in 1898.His military force was captured in two poems by Scottish-Australian poet Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963), in "The real Mackays!"