Back At It
August has come (and gone), and it was August, I promised myself, when I would re-start my End to End planning after my summer's recuperation from the May "reconnaissance" trip. And so I have. Beginning again, and excited about it! I learned much from the first try, and intend to get farther this time!
I came home in May to find
Bo and
Minnie (my aging dogs) medically compromised. As of this writing, they are still with me, though it seems Minnie doesn't have long for this world. Bo spent a week or two suffering from the Cruciatus Curse (Vestibular Syndrome), but recovered and is now her (very) old self. Friends helped me celebrate her 14th birthday August 1.
I spent a month mid-summer flat on my back after injuring the SI joint in my lower back mounting my horse from the ground. Something I would have done daily on the UK ride. I was glad, if this had to happen, it happened at home. After four doctors and ten times as many pills, I've recovered from that too, and am working to strengthen my back and engineer mounting-assist technology for the next trip.
Friends
Fae Ellsworth and
Lynne Cobb nursed my damaged spirit on my UK return and through "our" assorted maladies, declaring 2009 "The Summer of Fun." So while my back kept me immobile, I read all seven Harry Potter novels and watched all six movies. I am now an official HP fan and am quite up-to-date on all the details. (The books are waaayyyy better than the movies, although the movies are very fun. I have a crush on Ron Weasley).
Vivian Cropper asked that I write an update for the Z-Arts! newsletter, and I thought I would include it here for those of you not members. I also wanted to let you know I'll probably begin blogging about trip preparations again soon.
End 2 End 1I used to joke that the Scots historically and repeatedly threw themselves across The Borders like a Chihuahua nipping at a Great Dane’s heels, so consistent were they at attaching or repelling the English. And so it was with me. I arrived in the U.K for my four-month End to End horseback ride April 30, and returned to the U.S. May 21 repulsed but not defeated, like a true Englishman, by Scotland’s May temperament.
Many have asked what happened that I didn’t complete the trip; what follows is a brief answer, though for a full accounting, you’ll have to read the book! The full story is a tale of Internet relationships gone horribly wrong and amazingly right; of encounters with Dememtors and failed Defense Against the Dark Arts skills (a bit of shorthand for Harry Potter fans); and years of preparation short circuited. My one-sentence sum-up: Right horse, right gear, wrong plan.
Right Horse
I spent the last three years not only reading an entire bookcase of U.K. research, but also scouring the web for an appropriate horse at a reasonable price. In that time, I saw exactly two horses that caught my eye and fit my needs. The first was on the Isle of Shetland—a stunning, golden, ten-year-old Lithuanian Heavy Draft Horse. Although most horses are advertized for months before selling, she sold before I could compose an inquiring email. The second—mind you I looked at literally thousands of horses—was a ten-year-old Dales-Cross “pony,” black except for a small white crescent moon on her forehead. Her name was
Midnight, and she is now mine.
I had specific needs in finding exactly the right horse: old enough not to be silly (eight years or older—a hard thing to find as most folks don’t want to sell a horse in which they have put years of work—most horses on the web are yearlings); strong enough to be a “weight-carrier,” (to move me and all my gear 1,000 miles or more); and, of course, beautiful. I can’t express the thrill I felt when I saw Midnight’s photo. Not only was she beautiful, but she was carrying, at a nice trot, a rider who weighed just about the sum of me and my gear. In the next image, she was carrying a four-year-old girl at a full canter. Weight-carrier; not silly; beautiful. Now, if I could only convince her owner to sell her to me.
Almost all horse web ads end with the phrase, “To a five-star home only.” I was going to be riding a very long way carrying a lot of weight, facing who-knows-what obstacles, potential mishaps and injuries, and having to sell on my gallant steed after ride’s end, most likely to a stranger, unless I could raise the unlikely sum of $14,000 to bring her to Utah. In other words, I was definitely not a five-star home. But, I contacted
Oliver and Naomi Clarke of Saltcoats, Scotland, anyway, and unbelievably, they were not only willing to sell her to me, they put off other potential buyers, were fascinated by my ride and wanted to meet me along my route. Finer people I haven’t met anywhere. Scottish friend Vyv Wood-Gee visited Midnight, rode her, bought her, and took her home. All this transpired in two days one week before I was scheduled to leave for England. I had planned extra weeks to search for a ! horse on arrival, and was blown away to have Midnight waiting for me!
Midnight proved the perfect companion. We rode every day, miles on pavement and off, with other horses and alone. No problem. Cars, motorcycles, lorries. No problem. Big hay tractor. Problem. Had quite the rodeo when the biggest hay tractor I’ve ever seen approached us from behind. Who could blame the valiant Midnight? This was probably the first thing bigger than herself she’d ever encountered!
Right GearThe right equipment loomed as my next challenge. What exactly did I need? What would I encounter? Where would I stay? I needed horse tack, certainly: saddle, saddle pad, bridle, halter, lead rope at minimum. Saddle bags. Tent. Rain gear. Pad. Clothes. Stove. Rain gear. Sleeping bag. Food. Water. Rain gear. Long undies. Emergency stuff. Medical kit for horse and human; and sturdy, waterproof horse-comfortable saddlepacks in which to carry it all! How to keep the horse restrained at night? Hobbles? Picket pin? Electric corral? The end answer was all of the above depending on circumstance. My gear list was four pages long. Midnight and I were in daily training for our end-to-end-20-mile-per-day pace when the third element caught us by surprise.
Wrong PlanIf I were writing this from Scotland, my teeth would still be chattering. My initial plan, to ride from southern England to northern Scotland had been reversed in conversation with English riders. Go north to south, they said, get the “hard part” over while your horse is fresh. Made sense. Two problems arose once on the ground: first, their hard part was my easy part, i.e., Scotland’s mountainous remoteness; I’d rather ride backwoods anything than England’s narrow, car-filled roads. Secondly, my genetic-English and Michigan-bred cold-bloodedness has been long diluted by Southwest sun, and I froze my considerable butt off in Scotland’s spring, its driving, horizontal, daily rain. Luckily, my gear held up (though I wore all of it all the time), but my plan didn’t.
After all my research and planning, my route proved untenable. Not only was my direction seemingly backward for this time of year, but one trail on which I had planned to move hundreds of miles was impassable to horses (no mention of this on the web). Scotland’s arcane land laws, required permissions, restricted access, and unmapped routes got the better of us. I was down to either doing the trip by road (in which case, why not drive?), or facing the very real possibility of getting Midnight or myself terribly lost or badly hurt. After talking with other long-distance riders, I decided the safest, though saddest, course of action was to find Midnight a good home on lease, return to Utah, regroup, and re-plot my course for next year.
End 2 End 2So. Next year it is. I will employ the considerable information I gathered onsite in planning and riding the trip in 2010. Midnight is well cared for in a great home, I have the time and contacts to plan a better route, and my unfortunate experiences (I haven’t told all!) will made for a broader, more interesting book.
I am truly grateful to everyone who supported Midnight and me and our quest for our small grail. If all goes well, watch for us next year beginning June or July!
Happy Trails!
Greer
Finally have a route through England! Here it is, although Cornwall fell off the left side, and I don't quite get to Scotland, it'll keep me busy for awhile.
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