Re: RC: riding cross country

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/28/01 5:21:11 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
guest@endurance.net writes:


> Has anyone rode cross country???? I'm thinking of riding from my
> house to my sisters house, it will be about 100 miles apart.. it will
> mostly be small 2 lane hwy. in rural Ga. and Tenn.  my question is....
> how many miles can I expect to ride each day?, right now I ride
> about 20 miles each saturday in the mountains but that is riding
> from about 9am to about 3-4 pm.  what time of day do I need to
> make camp each day?  how much feed to I need to take
> with me???   


In 1975, my husband, daughter and I rode cross-country, much as you describe, 
and we did beautifully.  We had two horses, so two people rode by half-days, 
while the third drove the truck and trailer.  We rotated in one rider at the 
half-day break.  Our daughter was 15; she was a good driver but had not yet 
acquired her license, so she always rode and my husband and I rotated.  We 
averaged about 38 miles per day (some days more, some days less), over 
varying terrain, including low mountains, but most of it on either dirt roads 
or minor highway shoulders.  We mostly trotted at about 7-8 MPH speed.  We 
stopped at noon for our own lunch and fed the horses grain and some hay.  Of 
course, water was always offered as frequently as possible.  We grained in 
the morning and at night, as well.  The horses were trailer-tied at night and 
we kept hay in front of them all night.  At the end of 8 days, we had covered 
310 miles on horseback, much more on the truck, because part of the time the 
horses were ridden cross-country on roads that would not support 
truck-trailer travel (too rough).  We felt that these horses could have gone 
on indefinitely at that speed and distance, unless there should have been 
some accident precipitating lameness.  It was one of the great adventures of 
our lives.  The area was in the extreme NE corner of California.
Now, if you are going it alone, without someone to carry your horse feed and 
your own food, this is going to be very different.  At the rate we went, it 
would take you three days, and it would be very hard to carry enough feed for 
your horse and food for yourself to pull this off.  Unless, of course, you 
are in an area where you can buy feed, take lodging, etc.

Barbara