The Horse Travel Handbook is destined to become the Long Rider's Bible.
It has been an honor and a privilege, a pleasure and a surprise, to be among the first to read this wonderful work. Only CuChullaine O’Reilly could accomplish this task. I know of no other person with such energy, dedication and the knowledge needed to put together such an incredible effort.
I lifted the book and searched through it full of expectation. Within minutes, I found myself reading something called a handbook. Yet it was as if I was reading a great novel. I was trapped by it, dominated page after page.
As I read, I felt as if I were speaking to my son, in front of a camp fire, the night before his first day travelling by horse. As a father I would want to transfer my knowledge and all my experience to make his trip safer and less difficult. I would want to imprint upon him the qualities required in order to handle himself on the road before he ventured into the wild and the unknown. Everything he would need to know, everything I could teach him, is found within the Horse Travel Handbook.
And while I was reading it, I had the feeling that I was reading to myself. I could hear myself talking on the last night of my own equestrian journey. It was an encounter with the person I was many years ago. I felt I was travelling in the saddle once again.
After spending nine months riding 5,000 kilometers, after spending a life among horses on Argentine ranches, I can assure you that no topics are omitted from the Handbook.
This work provides answers to your questions and solutions to your problems. It will help you avoid many kinds of dangers. Your horses will be thankful that you have read it in advance of the ride because you will avoid making common mistakes. The path will be easier for you and your mounted friends because you will have read the knowledge gathered from hundreds of Long Riders who travelled before you.
Yet the Handbook offers more than just answers to questions and solutions to problems. It is an invitation to see the world on horseback. It will guide you day by day and kilometer after kilometer.
Thanks to the advice, suggestions, examples and stories contained in his book, CuChullaine invites us to follow our dreams and go after our passions. To live, as he well wrote, the legendary life.
This is so much more than a handbook that I believe that term does not do justice to it. People nowadays like to use the term Bible for something that is very well written and covers every aspect of a certain topic. For me, CuChullaine’s book deserves to be called the Long Rider’s Bible.
Argentine Long Rider Benjamin Reynal rode in South America and is the author of ‘Cuando La Distancia Revela.’