George Beck – led the Overland Westerners on an amazing 20,000 mile journey to all 48 state capitals in the USA. Beck’s remarkable journey began in 1912, when he convinced his brother Charlie, his brother-in-law, Jay Ransom, and a friend, Raymond Rayne, to join him on a cross-country horse trip which he believed would bring them all fortune and fame. Despite calling themselves the Overland Westerners, the four former loggers had no equestrian travel experience. Nevertheless they set off on the May 1, 1912 from their hometown of Shelton, Washington. Their first destination was Olympia, the nearby state capital. There they had their photograph taken with the governor and received an official document known as a “Certificate of Call” which confirmed their arrival at that city. For the next three years Beck led the Overland Westerners through a long series of ordeals. They rode through every type of bad weathers, crossed every geographic challenge and survived terrible economic hardship in their quest to be the first persons in history to ride to all 48 American state capitals.

They reached Sacramento, their 48th and last state capital on May 24, 1915. They had been in the saddle for three years and one month, a record 1127 days of that time spent riding.  They had gone through 17 horses on the 20,352 mile trip. During this time the men had spent just $9,000 between them.

After their photograph was taken with the governor of California, Beck led the Overland Westerners towards their last stop, the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Arriving there on June 1, 1915, the men had expected to be greeted as heroes by the boisterous crowds gathered there to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. Instead an Irish cop yelled at them to “get them hayburners off the street.” Little Sheba the belly-dancer was big news. Four saddle-sore heroes were not. They came expecting glory. They found only financial failure.

Within days their story and marvellous achievement was rapidly forgotten by an apathetic public more interested in the outbreak of World War One than four weary men and their footsore horses. George Beck’s three companions, tired, broke and broken-hearted, sold their horses and tack and rode the rails home to Washington.  George stayed on in San Francisco trying to coax a story out of editors and authors.  Jack London, among others, turned him down.  With no hope and no pot of gold, George managed to pull off his last miracle. He saved his horse.

Pinto was the only mount who had managed to complete the entire gruelling trip.  The tough little 15 hand, 900 pound Morab gelding had started the journey as the humble pack horse. But he soon left his pack saddle behind and become George’s equine soul-mate.  Beck scraped together enough money to get him and the ever-loyal Pinto passage home on a tramp steamer. They arrived back in Puget Sound to no fanfare.  Beck tried to put his recollections into a book but had no success.

“I wrote it sweet enough but it came up sour,” he said.
That brief statement could have summarized his life and great adventure.  Beck, the man who had saddled his dream and rode it out, died one night dead drunk, drowned in a six-inch deep roadside ditch.  Soon after his master’s death, Pinto was sent off to labour one last time, lugging a packsaddle once again, through the thick, rainy depths of the Olympic National Forest. Pinto was never heard of again.

After that all trace of the Overland Westerners soon disappeared.

English artist Julius Beerbohm’s role in equestrian travel history was overshadowed for nearly a hundred years by that of his famous companion, English Long Rider Lady Florence Dixie.

Thanks to his connections to the English aristocracy, Beerbohm could afford to accept the invitation offered by Lord and Lady Dixie when they announced they intended to explore the wilds of Patagonia on horseback. The group arrived at the sparsely populated tip of South America in 1877, obtained horses and a local guide, then wasted no time before setting off to explore the interior.

The journey required the aristocrats to leave behind any traces of their former soft life. They rode hundreds of miles, barely survived a wild prairie fire that threatened to burn them alive in the saddle, dined on an assortment of strange local cuisines, befriended the mounted Indians and returned to England a year later full of adventurous tales.

Lady Florence Dixie quickly wrote, “Riding Across Patagonia,” a popular account of her travels which she shared with fellow Long Rider, Charles Darwin.

Princess Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso was an Italian noblewoman, writer, political revolutionary, social reformer and equestrian traveller who rode from Turkey to the Holy Land.

Described as the richest heiress in Italy, at sixteen she was wed to a libertine prince. After their separation she became an ardent supporter of Italy’s struggle for independence from the Austro-Hungarian empire. Her political activities brought her to the attention of the secret police, which forced her to flee to France. During the 1830s and 1840s her Paris salon became a meeting place for Italian revolutionaries. She also associated with the European artistic intelligentsia, including Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo and Franz Listz.

In 1838, she gave birth to a daughter, she named Mary. Yet motherhood did not suppress her political ardour. During the Italian revolution of 1848 she organized her own troop of soldiers, the led them into battle against the Austrians. When that insurrection failed, she returned to Paris where she published articles describing Italy’s plight. . In 1849 she returned to Italy to support another independence movement but when it too failed, she was forced to flee with her daughter, and her English maid, Mrs. Parker.

They ended up in Turkey, where the Princess purchased a remote farm two days ride from Ankara.

In January 1852, the adventuresome trio left for an eleven month equestrian journey which took them through Turkey, Syria and Palestine. Due to Cristina’s desire to learn about the people, their culture and religion, she visited harems, administered medicines, and interviewed various officials, all the while putting up with the hardships of mounted winter travel. An avid author, the Princess published an account of her experiences. In her book, Of Women's Condition and of their Future, she took great exception to how women were treated in this part of the world, arguing that to deprive girls of education was to condemn women to lives of oppression.

Frank Bessac – took part in one of the most extraordinary equestrian journeys of the 20th century, an ill-fated journey which took him from the borders of Mongolia to the distant Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

After learning Chinese in university, Bessac was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. In 1945 he was dispatched to the border area between China and Mongolia. While there Bessec was befriended by Prince De, a descendant of Genghis Khan. In 1948 Bessac assisted Prince De in distributing vitally needed food aid sent to the Mongols by the US State Department. In recognition Bessac was made a Knight of Genghis Khan and named an honorary Mongol. With China descending into political chaos, Bessac then travelled to the remote western city of Urumchi. There he met fellow American Doug Mackierrnan, the American vice-consul who was working as a secret agent of the CIA. With their retreat to the East cut off by advancing Chinese Communist forces, Bessac agreed to join Mackiernan and three White Russian refugees who were determined to escape. The plan was to travel overland to meet Osman Bator, the leader of the Kazakh nomads, obtain horses and then ride south across China, Tibet and on into India. The resultant 2,000 mile journey forced Bessac and his companions to cross almost uninhabited and unmapped territory, survive one of the world’s most deadly deserts and ascend the Himalayan Mountains before finally reaching Lhasa. Along the way they suffered hardship and death.

Having initially eluded their Chinese pursuers, when the equestrian escapees reached the Takla Makan Desert, Kazakh nomads advised the travellers that, because there was no pasture ahead, they could only proceed if they rode specially-trained, meat-eating horses. The Kazakh chief, Hussein Taiji, said that such horses were rare, and would cost twice as much. The diet of these extraordinary horses was another equine, the wild ass of Central Asia.

One of Bessac’s Russian companions, Vasili Zvansov, later recalled, “We searched for three months amongst the Kazaks for these rare meat-eating horses.  But when we found them we discovered they wouldn’t eat just any kind of meat – they would only eat the liver of the wild ass, known as the Gobi Kulan. We also learned we couldn’t feed them liver every day, or it would have killed them, so we fed them every few days. There was indeed no grass on the entire trip and only the horses which ate the liver survived the trip.”

At one point Bessac was thrown from a horse and fell on the submachine gun that was strapped to his back, cracking a vertebra.

During the course of their journey McKiernan had managed to radio Washington to report their progress. The American government in turn sent word to the Dalai Lama’s government, asking the Tibetans to extend diplomatic sanctuary to McKiernan and his men when they reached Lhasa. The problem was that McKiernan and Bessac were due to enter Tibet before any official word of greeting could be sent from the capital to the distant border post. Plus, McKiernan's group had no visible sign of authority. Mistaking he travellers for bandits or communist raiders, the Tibetan border guards opened fire. McKiernan and two of the Russians were slain. Bessac and the remaining Russian, Vasili Zvansov, were wounded. The Tibetans then tied up the two survivors, threw them on their horses and began heading them towards the still distant Lhasa. Marching before the dazed Bessac was a baggage camel carrying a filthy sack. With his own life hanging by a thread the wounded American didn’t comment on what he knew was swinging back and forth before him, for his Long Rider comrade, Mackiernan, had been beheaded on his birthday. And that grisly trophy, along with the heads of the deceased Russians, led the way to Lhasa.

On June 12 1950 the two wounded travellers arrived in the Tibetan capital where they visited the Dalai Lama, then aged 14. Because Tibet was under imminent threat of invasion from the approaching Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Tibetan leaders urged Bessac to obtain American protection for the endangered country. Though Bessac insisted that he had no official status, he promised to transmit the Tibetan request for military aid to the authorities in Washington DC. After crossing rivers and more Himalayan passes, Bessac eventually reached India and then returned to the United States. Unfortunately by the time Bessac presented the Tibetans request for assistance to Secretary of State Dean Acheson in Washington, the Chinese Communists had invaded. Bessac believed that had Mackiernan lived, the experienced diplomat might have had time to convince Washington to recognise Tibet soon enough to preserve it as a sovereign state.

Soon after his return to the USA, Frank Bessac wrote an article for Life magazine entitled “Trek to Tragedy.” Before his death in 2010 Bessac provided the Long Riders’ Guild with extracts from his journal, which form this unique "Story from the Road.” He also completed a book entitled “Death on the Chang Tang: Tibet, 1950: The Education of an Anthropologist.”

There is an amazing equestrian epilogue to Bessac’s story. In 1954 National Geographic magazine documented how Kazakh chief Qali Beg led his tribe 3,000 miles from Sinkiang, China to safety in Kashmir, India. Part of the tribe’s journey was made on specially trained meat-eating horses, which were able to survive in the grassless Takla Makan desert!

Here is an excellent obituary published in Britain's Daily Telegraph.

While stationed on the island of Corfu in 1838, Captain J. J. Best decided to use his leave to explore Albania on horseback. Consequently he set off in November of that year to ride through the seldom-seen land. The isolated country which the Long Rider, accompanied by his fellow English officers, Captains Murray and Cunynghame, and Lieutenant Shaw, proposed to ride through was a province of the Ottoman Empire and strangers were neither permitted nor welcomed.

In his book, “Excursions in Albania,” Best described how he obtained official army permission to explore the hermit kingdom of Europe. This permission was vitally important because eight months prior to this Prince Pierre Napoleon, son of Lucien Bonaparte, went into the country illegally to hunt, whereupon he and his group became involved in a lethal shoot-out with the mountainous inhabitants, the result of which was that two Albanians were killed and the entire countryside was alerted against foreigners.

English officers had been sneaking into Albania for some time to hunt without any official Albanian authorization. So Best's recognized journey was historically important as it appears he may have been the most important English traveller to explore the country since Lord Byron rode there in 1809. 

Best’s book is packed with a variety of equestrian adventures. However, one piece of equestrian travel advice offered by the author is worth recalling. 

"We had not resumed our journey long before we came to another river, and hearing there were many more which we must cross in our day's journey, we decided on adopting a plan which I strongly recommend to all persons who may meet with similar difficulties in travelling through a wild country with a small allowance of clothes. Sitting in wet clothes is likely to cause rheumatism, so, after some deliberation, we came to the conclusion, that in a warm climate like Albania the lower garments, which we usually wear in the civilized part of Europe, ought to be considered as useless encumbrances, and fit only for fashionables who study their personal appearances.

We therefore (do not blush, gentle reader) established a fashion of our own, and rode without any at all!

By this remarkably simple and ingenious contrivance, for which we took to ourselves a great deal of credit, we preserved a set of dry clothes to put on at the end of our day's ride, and ran no risk of getting rheumatism by keeping in wet ones. We performed a considerable part of this last part of our journey in this extraordinary costume. What a fine subject for a caricaturist! At first I was disposed to laugh a good deal, but a few hours up to my girths in water cooled astonishingly my sense of the ridiculous." 

In his merry story the young English Long Rider recalled how he and his friends avoided being murdered by trigger-happy Albanians, witnessed the miseries of a local slave market and out-rode local brigands. 

Sir Francis Bond Head was a soldier in the British army, who afterwards attempted to set up a mining company in Argentina. In 1825 Bond Head sailed for Buenos Aires with a group of Cornish miners. Under Bond Head’s guidance the miners rode across the Pampas, then crossed the Andes mountains and crossed into Chile, only to find that the promised mining concessions had in the meantime been granted to rival companies. Leaving his staff in relative safety, Bond Head rode back across the Andes alone, journeying to Buenos Aires for instructions. When it became evident that the mining proposal was doomed to failure, Bond Head rescued  his men and oversaw their safe passage back to England. His subsequent book, “Rough Notes Taken during some rapid journeys across the pampas and Andes,” was produced in 1828 by the famous John Murray publishing house. Bond Head’s book was praised by his fellow English Long Rider, Charles Darwin, who had also made extended equestrian journeys in various parts of South America. In later life Bond Head was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada in 1836, where he was called upon to put down a rebellion. He later moved back to England, where he organised protests against the proposed outlawing of horse-riding in the area in which he lived.

Gabriel Bonvalot – The annals of the Historical Long Riders include men and women of astounding bravery, remarkable resourcefulness and enduring optimism. Then there is Gabriel Bonvalot, whose remarkable rides “through the Heart of Asia” mark him as the most influential French Long Rider of the 19th century.

Bonvalot (1853-1933) was a French explorer, author, and legislator whose exploits in the saddle began in 1880 when he set out to explore Central Asia. Accompanied by the noted French scientist, Dr. Guillaume Capus, the intrepid French Long Riders explored the fabled kingdoms of Bukhara, Khiva and Samarkand. A few years later they once again rode across Central Asia, then turning southward, tried to penetrate into the hostile kingdom of Afghanistan. They were seized, imprisoned, then expelled back towards Samarkand. Refusing to concede defeat, Bonvalot determined to reach India via an obscure caravan track which reputedly ran across the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains.

According to legend, this “Roof of the World” had been created when the Devil lifted the entangled mass of 20,000 foot high mountains to see what mysteries lay underneath. After a perilous winter passage, the Frenchmen managed to reach the remote mountain kingdom of Chitral. Instead of being hospitably received, they were again imprisoned as trespassers but, with the help of sympathetic British authorities, were eventually released and allowed to travel on to India. These two expeditions placed Bonvalot among the ranks of the English explorer Younghusband, the Russian explorer Prejevalsky and the Swedish explorer Hedin.

Yet these two journeys could be considered “training trips” for what came next.

In 1889 Bonvalot set out to make an unparalleled journey from France to French Indochina. Accompanying the seasoned equestrian explorer this time was Prince Henri d’Orleans, a young aristocrat with a craving for adventure and a talent for photography. After crossing Russia, the Frenchmen mounted up in Siberia, then headed south towards Tibet. The resultant equestrian winter journey across the Tibetan plain and the Himalayan mountains is nearly too arduous to believe. The men routinely rode in weather so cold that their Siberian companions begged them to turn back when the mercury in the thermometer froze.

Yet Bonvalot’s courage and resistance overcame all obstacles. “Our diet is always the same,” he wrote. “The frozen meat we chop with an ax. Our water is always dirty because its comes from melting ice. Tea never really boils on account of the altitude. The dust, mud, sand and hairs from our furs and beasts which we find in our food, are things which we have long ceased to pay attention to.”

On one occasion, as the illustration on the left demonstrates, Bonvalot's horse stumbled and nearly went hurtling over a 300-foot precipice with his rider.  But Bonvalot carried coolly on.  No doubt this terrifying scenario was repeated several times.

The French Long Rider needed to be tough, as not only the terrain, but also the xenophobic Tibetans, were trying to deter him. The government of Lhasa had a standing order to turn back any foreigners attempting to enter their “hermit kingdom.” But the observant Bonvalot was able to enter Tibet by following a trail considered so secret that many Tibetans did not even know of its existence. This attention to detail caused one caravan traveller to declare that even though he was a European, Bonvalot was certainly a “Saia.” When asked to explain, the wise traveller explained that a saia was a man who cannot stay in one place for long because “when our mothers were pregnant with us, they travelled, and as they strained their eyes to see beyond the horizons, they made us journeyers.”

Though Bonvalot and Prince Henri did indeed reach faraway Indochina, their most remarkable legacy is that they are the only Europeans known to have ridden the fabled meat-eating horses of Tibet. Due to a lack of grain and traditional forage, the Tibetans fed their horses on a special protein diet. Bonvalot noted, “We have had some small Tibetan horses given us which are full of go, and which feed on raw flesh, as we have seen with our own eyes. These carnivorous beasts have marvellous legs, are as clever as acrobats and carry us at a rapid trot.” Bonvalot’s observations form part of an important new research project currently being carried out by The Long Riders’ Guild Academic Foundation. The French Long Rider’s findings have been incorporated into a study of the hitherto undocumented use of carnivorous horses in cultures around the world.

Before his journey was over, Bonvalot had ridden across Siberia, the Takla Makan desert, Tibet and China, reaching Hanoi in little more than a year after setting off from Paris. This astonishing journey, which has never again been attempted, inspired Jules Verne to use Bonvalot as the role model of his intrepid fictional reporter, Claudius Bombarnac, who also travelled in this remote portion of the planet.

Yet Bonvalot’s ride was fact, not fantasy, and remains the record of the man who the natives said “was never happy unless he was seeking a fresh road.”

William Brenchley - The death of South African Long Rider Billy Brenchley marked the sad end of an epic journey across Africa.

The Guild deals with hundreds of equestrian travellers, from all parts of the world. That's not to say that their trips are not important to them on a personal level.

But what Billy and his companion, Christy Henchie, attempted to do was Homeric in terms of its scope. The couple set off in 2005, determined to complete the first ride from the most northern point of Africa, Cap Blanc in Tunisia to the most southern point of Africa, Cape Agulhas in South Africa. Ten countries and an untold number of hardships awaited them.

They were detained in the Sahara desert for 75 days while the Libyan government debated whether to allow them to enter. Egypt, with its sandstorms, tick bite fever and heat waves proved difficult. After riding across Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and northern Sudan, Billy and Christy were halted by the impassable swamp known as the Sudd. If the equestrian explorers wanted to progress they would have to load their two horses onto one of the few remaining cargo barges and float south to the distant city of Juba. Their thousand mile nautical journey is unique among modern equestrian travellers.  As they made their way through Southern Sudan, they passed areas where major battles had been fought. The landscape was littered with unexploded mines.

It was in Uganda that Christy and Billy made an astonishing discovery. Horses had disappeared from the country during the reign of Idi Amin. The unexpected sight of two Long Riders mounted on mysterious animals caused pandemonium in the countryside. They were followed by hundreds of curious people. Billy can be seen in the photo (above) speaking to a group of school children who asked, "Is that a kangaroo? Does it grow horns? Does it eat people?”

Soon after their arrival in Uganda, Billy became very ill. He was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and immediately flown to South Africa for emergency treatment. After a lengthy sixteen month treatment, he and Christy returned to Uganda and resumed their journey, determined this time to reach South Africa.

The Long Riders had travelled into Tanzania when tragedy struck. In the worst accident in the history of modern equestrian travel, Christie, 29, was killed instantly on January 28 2013 by an out-of-control bus. Billy Brenchley, 43, escaped death by inches but suffered a broken leg.

A crowd of enthusiastic locals who had turned out to cheer the Long Riders past their village were also killed and injured by the reckless driver. Several were slain and twenty-five bystanders, including many small children, were brutally mown down by the speeding vehicle. Brenchley was later to report to the Long Riders Guild that the bus driver involved faced three counts of causing death and two counts of causing injury arising from the accident. He pleaded guilty and was fined 250,000 Tanzanian shillings – the equivalent of 1658.34 South African rand or just under $US154.

As soon as the Guild learned the news, it published this special report. That story was in turn printed by Horse Talk, the international equestrian news service, which spread the news round the world like wildfire. Within hours, Long Riders began sending in messages, registering their shock and loss. This in turn led to the creation of a special condolence document for Christie. When Long Riders from around the world heard about Christie Henchie's death, they rushed to send their heartfelt condolences.

Christie’s memorial service was held in South Africa, where the injured Billy had been flown in time to attend. But soon afterwards his leukaemia struck again. In emails to the Guild he explained that no matter how much time he had to spend in hospital, he was determined to regain his strength and finish the ride in honour of Christie. That desire was not to be. In February he rallied his strength enough to pay a final visit to see the couple’s horses. They have been cared for by friends in Tanzania. After seeing his horses a final time, Billy returned to South Africa where he died soon afterwards after a long battle with leukaemia.

Life is full of forgettable people, who fill the world and our lives with trivialities and trouble.  A handful of us were blessed, for too short a time, to say we were enriched by knowing Billy and Christy. They were heroes on so many levels.

Evelyn Burnaby was the younger brother of the famous English Long Rider Colonel Frederick Burnaby. Whereas the elder brother was famous for having ridden across Central Asia and the Ottoman Empire, Evelyn decided to keep his equestrian adventures closer to home. He set off in 1892 to ride from Land’s End, Cornwall to John O’Groats, Scotland. Evelyn’s journey was soon serialised in a popular publication, “The Country Gentleman” and was published in book form the following year.