Sergeant Robert Seney was one of the most significant, and inspirational, North American Long Riders of the late 20th century. A lifelong horseman, Seney’s mounted career stretched from the cavalry era to the age of the modern Long Riders.

He was a member of the US cavalry when the Second World War broke out and spent the early part of the war helping to maintain a mounted guard along the Mexican border. Seney was also deployed to Italy and later served with the American Air Force. Upon his retirement from the armed services the former horse soldier worked in Olympic National Park as a professional packer.

It was during this time that the cavalry sergeant discovered the road horse that was to take him upon so many retirement era adventures.

According to Robert Seney’s son, Dick, his father’s horse, Trooper was a big cold blooded grey gelding.  Mounted on the grey Trooper, Seney made a series of equestrian journeys through the United States, the effect of which inspired the next generation of American equestrian travellers to emulate this great and generous horseman.

Together Seney and Trooper explored California’s back country trails and also rode the Pacific Crest Trail three times. In 1976 the mounted patriot set out to explore his homeland, a journey which saw Seney and Trooper making an extended journey to various parts of the United States. During that trip, and many subsequent adventures, nothing stopped the old cavalryman except truly bad weather.

The sergeant turned Long Rider made six journeys between 1967 and 1980. The shortest journey was 2,000 miles and the longest was 9,000 miles. His combined travels through all 48 states exceeded 24,000 miles in the saddle.

Sergeant Robert Seney, last of the American cavalry Long Riders, died in 2001 in Arizona, but not before leaving many stories of his travels.

Long Rider Jeff Foster met this Long Rider legend while he was travelling from California to New York, and this is his account of that unexpected encounter.

There was what turned out to be a memorable moment, while on my journey from California to New York when I met Bob Seney. I was traveling, in Kansas, along a fire road within view of an old road with little traffic, A car pulled up and stopped near enough for the driver to be heard and he motioned for me to come close. This gentleman asked if I was the man making the cross country trip and told me of a man who was at the stockyards not so far ahead who was making a similar trip from North to South.

 

He, the man in the car, would drive back and see if Bob Seney would wait for me to get there the following day. He did and after 30+ years past, I recall the time spent well.

 

I met Bob at the stockyards and he graciously already had supper waiting. We spoke for hours, long into the night. This man was an amazement to me. Here I was a novice, with only about 1500 miles logged and I was speaking to a man who has and had made this means of travel a way of life, no, just not a way of life, but life itself.

 

Bob spoke to me of days gone by, of the Cavalry Post, the last one, at Fort Riley, Kansas. The stories he told me were of a hard life to some but a good life to many, He explained to me how the US Cavalry covered so much ground in a day while giving rest to the horses. I did sense a feeling of loss from Bob as these days  had vanished and I do believe, and it is only my opinion, that that may be why he chose to live a life traveling via horseback in whatever direction he decided on. No particular end point at all. It could be said of Bob that the old saying the "life is in the journey and not the destination" could have been his philosophy.

 

I recall Bob telling me what lay ahead of me for the next 500 miles or so as he had been there. He told me of places to stay with water and feed and kind people. Bob was a man who shared his knowledge and experience. He spoke of his horses and how he packed one, one day and rode the other.

 

Here we were, two solitary men in a nondescript abandoned stockyard sharing the world we had. There was such an unspoken camaraderie between us as we knew that although we enjoyed each other's company  very much that we were to resume our journeys, alone, in different directions.

 

It was here in this stockyard that I realized what I was doing. It was not a big event to many and was not even a grand event for myself. It was simply something I was doing, not for a goal or a prize or a competition or recognition but for the way of life.
Bob taught me that in an abandoned stockyard.

After two days Bob and I parted company and I felt enriched by the meeting, I felt grateful.

 

It has been said that Bob Seney is a legend among Long Riders and that I cannot dispute as I agree with it. I would add though that Bob Seney was a good man, a caring and giving man and that would do for any one's memory or epitaph. To say that Bob was on a journey, I would disagree with. There was no end in sight for him. This was his life and he had the courage to live it.

 

After all these years I can recall listening to the Master Horseman, Bob Seney, instill in a young traveler the way of living life that is not only borrowing the horse's freedom but creating a freedom that few of us ever know and come to live. The freedom that only comes when human and horse live a life together.

 

Thanks Bob and know this, that your memory stays with me and has been with me all these years.

 

Gratefully, Jeff Foster

Here is a story written by the legendary Sgt. Seney.