Stories from the Road

Environment

Long Rider Pioneer of Environmental Research
In December 1901 Harry de Windt set off to travel from Paris to New York, via Siberia. The 18,494 mile long journey was filled with hardship and danger. Yet the resourceful de Windt created the first meteorological study that documented temperatures around the globe.
 

The Future Has a Face and a Name
Greta and Alejandro Matos became members of the Long Riders’ Guild when they rode across Chile. When they set off across Patagonia in 2022, their daughter Sofía Alegría joined them. Upon the completion of the journey Sofía became the youngest person ever to be made a Member of the Long Riders’ Guild. Yet as she rode with Sofía Alegría sitting in front, Greta realised that the Little Long Rider symbolised every child whose future is in danger because of climate change. In a remarkable introspection the Mother, Long Rider and Environmentalist explains, “Our children, just like our Earth, hold the key to our collective future. If there was ever a time to reconnect with the bravery within our hearts, face our fears about our uncertain future, and turn toward the unknown with curiosity, it is now.”
 

A Long Rider’s View of the Eco Apocalypse
Will we stand aside and watch as humanity in its arrogance continues to ruthlessly ravage the fragile ecological balance and thereby transform the planet into our coffin? If children are to have a chance, we have a blindingly obvious individual duty to save the Earth by abolishing the harmful habits that have brought us to the brink of collective suicide.
 

Long Riders Document Climate Change
We are living at a pivotal moment in human history where deadly heat, gigantic wild fires, intense droughts, epic floods, and melting glaciers provoke starvation, migration and death. What is widely misunderstood is that eequestrian travel is facing an increasing number of climatic threats that jeopordise its continued existence. This is the only investigation of its kind. It reveals 122 years of destructive human activity as witnessed by Long Riders around the world.
 

Seen from the Saddle - A Long Rider Eyewitness to Climate Change
German Long Rider Sabine Keller has ridden more than 40,000 miles. In a special report created for the Guild’s environmental study, Sabine described the many alarming changes she witnessed during her latest equestrian journey across Europe.

Long Rider Family Carries Guild Flag
During Pioneering Environmental Study
in National Parks and Forests
In an age where traditional family values are derided and a growing number of young people have no interaction with Nature, a mother, daughter and father are preparing to undertake an environmental study for the Long Riders’ Guild. The 1,200 mile ride will take the family through 23 of America’s national parks and forests. Having witnessed the effects of climate change, Lacy, Clara and Shane decided to depart on the equestrian journey that they had long dreamed of. Yet they realised that this would present them with a unique opportunity to not only study each national resource but to also speak to the horse owners, ranchers, farmers and back country packers whose lives and historical activities were under threat.
 

Heat and Horses - A Survival Guide
If you’ve never experienced truly life-threatening heat it’s hard to realize what it does to you. It’s not until you feel the air burning as you breathe, your skin frying, or your mind reeling that you begin to comprehend what a deadly foe the sun can be. Like us, the horse will lose some heat via respiration. The problem is that the shape of his body, and its larger percentage of heat-generating muscle, reduces his ability to dissipate heat through the evaporation of sweat. Thus, though you are travelling together, his ability to dissipate heat is seriously reduced compared to yours. In a word, even though the climate may not be causing you undue stress, the horse will suffer more than you do. Filipe Leite observed this during his journey from Canada to Brazil. During the summer of 2013, he made this important observation while riding in southern Mexico. “One day I was watching the horses eat while sweating profusely at 7 a.m. Frenchie was literally soaked just from chewing his hay. I couldn't believe it! I have never experienced this kind of heat in my life. Like the horses, I too am soaked from morning to night. The humidity is so thick it is like a wall.”
 

Ticks and Lyme Disease - A Deadly Peril
Lucy Leaf overcame a great many challenges during her 7,000 mile ride through the United States. Ironically her life was put at its greatest risk after she stepped down from the saddle. Like other Long Riders in Europe and the USA Lucy became a victim of an insect-borne health hazard that poses a danger to millions of horses and humans in dozens of countries. Lucy’s ground-breaking article confirmed that climate change was encouraging a massive growth in the tick population and revealed how the deadly insects were migrating north into new areas. American medical authorities announced a 357% increase in tick borne illnesses and warned “more people are catching Lyme disease than ever before across the United States.”
 

Harmony – The Book That Predicted the
Environmental Emergency
More than a decade before today’s climate crisis, in his passionately written book, Harmony, HRH Prince Charles issued a prophetic warning about the future. The Prince cautioned humanity that the great juggernaut of industrialization was endangering our planet and all life on it. During her equestrian journey across Mongolia, Canadian Long Rider Bonnie Folkins witnessed firsthand the environmental catastrophe described in this book. Her review reveals why the concept of living in "harmony" has never been more important. ”