The Long Riders' Guild

Planning to undertake a long ride in a foreign land can initially be a very daunting proposition, as everything in that country is going to be unfamiliar to you. The weather, terrain, roads, traffic, even the law and the culture are all going to be different from that in your own country. So when I started to plan my solo ride from Canada to Mexico, I set myself three goals to try and overcome these problems, and also to make the trip as safe as possible for my two horses and myself. These were as follows:

(1)     Never be more than twenty miles from any town.

(2)     Familiarise myself with the terrain on my chosen route,

(3)     And most importantly, find somewhere to stay every night of the trip, so every day you are riding towards a friend, a friend who would know a local farrier or Vet. Be aware of the local road and weather conditions and who would have feed ready for the horses. These three tasks can quite easily be accomplished by using a computer and telephone.

Using “Google maps”, on my computer, I plotted the first draft of a reasonably direct route. Keeping well east of the Rockies, never more than twenty miles from a town, and trying to avoid any of the larger towns or city’s. I found this planning to be a reasonably straightforward job. After that was done, I then logged into “Google Earth” which is a free software package that uses satellite imagery, maps and layers of other information to create a realistic 3D aerial view of just about anywhere in the world. I zoomed in to where I planned to start the ride; I then set the tilt control so the horizon just came into view, and then off I went, following every mile of the proposed route in 3D, as if in a helicopter flying over where I was to ride. You are able to see every hill, road, track, river, and building, absolutely everything. It even has a measurement tool, so you can accurately determine the distance you will be riding. In time, and with a fair bit of tweaking, whenever it became necessary, I constructed the whole 1,900-mile ride.

The most important part of the planning procedure, however, was setting up a support network. A horse friendly “band of brothers”, people that would be willing to help, if and when, the need arises, and who will also provide me with somewhere safe to spend the nights, and rest days. Again using my computer, I “searched” for the Fairgrounds, Rodeo grounds, and campgrounds that were on my route. These I used as the backbone of places to stay. All my other hosts, and there are over forty, I found by telephoning somebody, whom I thought “might know somebody”. The best person I found for this was the county Sheriff, they almost always knew of a ranch owner just where I wanted to stop. If not the Sheriff, I would call the Mayor, feed store owner, the Chamber of Commerce, or tourism officer, I even rang school headmasters and local libraries with some success. Very often the host themselves would know of somebody else, twenty miles further down the road. All the calls I made, I started by saying “hi, my name is Bob Jones, and I’m calling from England”. This seemed to get their attention. I then told them about the ride and that I was looking for somewhere to stay, around a certain date, and did they know of anywhere? Every single person I called invited me to stay with them, which says a lot for the hospitality and generosity of the American people, something I’m truly grateful for. Every host also agreed to have feed available for the horses, which of course, I intend to pay for. The date of my arrival was left “fairly open” as I didn’t want to be tied down too much. It was agreed that I would call them a couple of days before I got there. All the phone calls that were made went through a cheap international calls provider, which only worked out at four cents a minute. So this method of communication was also very cost effective.

Having now arranged a safe place to stay for every night of my long ride, I now feel extremely confident about the success of the venture and am looking forward to setting off this July (2008).

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