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Slow trip

per

Well-known member
Spotted this guy a couple of days ago while at the ranch riding down the road. Saw him this morning way east of where he was. When I came home he was farther along so I stopped to visit. He is on a personal odyssey riding his horse from Kimberly BC to Prince Albert Sask. He made it to Longview last year before his horse had a foot injury. He just started out again when his horse completely healed up. He stops where ever he is at night and usually finds a home to put him up for the night. He will be long past my place by night. He asked me to sent an email with his photo to his wife.
July_11_09_002.jpg
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
You often see or hear about people making these treks and I wonder how they make out. We saw a outfit that looked like a boat pulled by a mule with the fellow walking along. He crossed the border here and he was interviewed down near Soapweed by Trent Loos. I think he was headed to Mexico.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I'm never impressed by this kind of thing. Too much of an animal
lover, I guess. And it's usually the animals that get the brunt
of it...sore feet, not enough to eat, etc. So far, this pony looks
pretty good, but you mentioned he had just started out...
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Faster horses said:
I'm never impressed by this kind of thing. Too much of an animal
lover, I guess. And it's usually the animals that get the brunt
of it...sore feet, not enough to eat, etc. So far, this pony looks
pretty good, but you mentioned he had just started out...

Yrs ago we had a guy come thru here doing something like this.


Mom let him pasture and camp in a field near the road.....far, far from the house.

She happened to be going down the road....and for some reason this guy was beatin' around on his pack horse. Both horses we rail thin and we'd given him all the feed he needed for that nite and several more days and hay/water for the night.

Anyhoo...Mom backed her ears and waded in to the frackus.

Bottom line, the guy ended up in jail---he already has several warrants it seems---and we ended up with 2 horses.

Those horses stayed around for about 5-6 yrs.

One died here of old age...and the pack horse we gave to the neighbor for his kids and he's still alive. Old and retired but alive.
 

per

Well-known member
He said he always dreamed to doing this. I saw him 3 times in 2 days. He was walking and leading the horse 2 of 3 times. He has no schedule or time limit. The horse looked well cared for and had shoes on it. He left the horse last summer to heal up at a well respected ranch and never resumed until they gave him the OK. I think it is a case of an odd fellow fulfilling a dream.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
It does sound like he is caring for his horse well, so I hope he
realizes his dream. Leading him is a good clue that he truly does
care. Most of the time I think if they want to get across the
country for some reason, why don't they ride a bicycle.
Then THEY are the ones doing the work.

So many are just like Kola described. I turned some in once myself.
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Horses are made to ride-seen lots of back pasture pets in rough shape too-I admire a person who has enough jam to go out and live his dream. it would be fun to ride the big powerline right of ways up here you'd see alot of game and I might not get lost lol.
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Big Muddy rancher said:
You often see or hear about people making these treks and I wonder how they make out. We saw a outfit that looked like a boat pulled by a mule with the fellow walking along. He crossed the border here and he was interviewed down near Soapweed by Trent Loos. I think he was headed to Mexico.

big dummie you outa try sumthin like that.....get that lil red stagecoach Miss Tam built hooked up to a couple donkeys and head south for the winter,probably get lost before you made the 49th :mad:
good luck :D
 

per

Well-known member
I just received this email from his sister.

I'm one of Richard's sisters, and live in Idaho. My sister-in-law Gail forwarded the pictures you so kindly sent. We are all very excited about Richard's trip...as one of my friends said, he is one guy really living out his dream. It was really nice of you to take the time to send the pictures. They will go into a photo book I'll be making for him, and these will be pictures via an act of random kindness from a stranger!

Richard bought a camera before he left, like one day before, so I hope he has been able to figure it out and is taking pictures as he goes. Last year he took disposable cameras and the picture were okay, but not as good as digital of course.
 

mrj

Well-known member
It's a cool idea for the right person. Riding the bicycle across country isn't so novel anymore, is it? Usually see several groups of bike riders crossing SD as part of a longer trek each year.

Biking cross country isn't such a new idea, either, as during the Ft. Pierre to Deadwood bull train re-creation last summer we learned of a couple of pioneers in the area doing a tour on wooden bicycles. The went from somewhere east of Pierre out into the Black Hills and into WY prior to 1900, I believe, or shortly after. Must have been hardy souls!

mrj
 

leanin' H

Well-known member
Not too very long ago ranchers rode their horses everywhere. Grandpa would ride 25 miles to pick up strays and then drive them where they needed to be. Texas to where-ever cattle drives went thousands of miles. Sure they switched horses but each horse in a string still was ridden hundreds if not thousands of miles. I understand that some dude could take a green, fat horse and ride him too hard. But some of ya'll sell horse's short. They are made for riding. Rough country or flat, rocky or covered with trees. If you want to baby your ponies and act like they are made out'a eggshells go ahead. But some of us trust our horses enough to USE them! :roll: Kind of a sore subject if ya can't tell. Sorry if I ruffled any feathers! :wink: :D
 

OldDog/NewTricks

Well-known member
In the 60's/70's a cowboy name "Justin Littlebit" rode from NYC to San Francisco - Was on the North side of the "Golden Gate" and it took hem about a month and much PR to get the right to ride across the Bridge - if I recall right he wrote a Diary/Stories that were monthly in Western Horseman
 

OldDog/NewTricks

Well-known member
In the 70's I had such an Idea - wrote it up and submitted it to a major Feed Company - I heard nothing

A PR man I know got a hold of it and raised the Hell out of my prices and Helped me resubmit it and I had 4 Companies show interest. It was about that time my Wife died and I lost Interest.

The Idea is still good "I'll Bet" - Worth Millions $$$
 

Denny

Well-known member
leanin' H said:
Not too very long ago ranchers rode their horses everywhere. Grandpa would ride 25 miles to pick up strays and then drive them where they needed to be. Texas to where-ever cattle drives went thousands of miles. Sure they switched horses but each horse in a string still was ridden hundreds if not thousands of miles. I understand that some dude could take a green, fat horse and ride him too hard. But some of ya'll sell horse's short. They are made for riding. Rough country or flat, rocky or covered with trees. If you want to baby your ponies and act like they are made out'a eggshells go ahead. But some of us trust our horses enough to USE them! :roll: Kind of a sore subject if ya can't tell. Sorry if I ruffled any feathers! :wink: :D




I'll agree here my horse is full of piss-n-vinegar after the days done. He was bred in Nebraska and must have been bred for bigger country than here because after 10 miles of use he's still ready to go. A horse like him you could ride 30 to 40 miles in a day I'd bet because 10 is nothing for him. We've got horses you'd be hard pressed to get 10 miles out of.

Someone asked a friend of mine why he rides his Good horses so hard. He told them they did'nt get good not being rode he's got some real good handy useable horses.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
If any of this is directed to me, I'd like to inform you that we ranched
with a man who owned and controlled 72,000 acres. We rode horses lots and lots of miles. The family who owned the place rode a horse and led a colt, so they would not ride the colt too hard. It was 84 miles by car round trip to the back of that place and home again, and there were places where you could not drive, so we rode, and we rode every day--summer and winter. Got up at 3 am in the morning during the summer to beat the heat. We had a string of horses and none got rode 2 days in a row, yet they were all lean and fit.

During the winter, the horses were sharp-shod with borium. One winter
it was so icy, the borium wore off the horses shoes.

We were on the Powder River in Wyoming. Cowboy country and really rough. So, I know about usiing horses, but we never used any horses up.
Sometimes we switched horses at noon. Just because a horse can go all day, doesn't mean he should have to. The folks that owned this place was some of the finest horsemen I have ever known. We learned a lot from them and one thing that came shining through--the horses CAME FIRST.
One of the guys made this remark one day, and I never forgot it.
He said, "the best horse I ever had was a little gray mare that weighed
about 900 lbs. I rode her like she was a big horse and she was done at 7. I swore I would never do that again."

My comment about the man and the horse pictured was not directed at this particualar person.
I've seen others that had no business riding across country. They took care of themselves, and NOT their horses. Believe me, I know the difference. I've seen the horses leg-weary and with sore backs and I
didn't like it.

Ok, off my rant now. :shock:
 

gcreekrch

Well-known member
H and FH, ya'll missed the part about ridin' uphill both ways. :p :p :lol:


We see both kinds in this area (horsemen and horse "people"), the lesser kind I don't have much respect for.
 
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