The Long Riders' Guild

This email came into The Long Riders' Guild:

We're two young women from the Northeast who have decided to spend five months riding our horses across Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. In addition, we're raising money for Heifer International along the way. We leave in May, so right now we're busy gathering resources, planning our route, and training the horses. Read our blog below to find out more about what we're doing and how to help us meet our goal of raising $7,500 before we come home!

July 2008

April and Dana have completed their first month on the trail, and send the email below to LRG HQ.  The Guild had sent them a copy of Messanie Wilkins' book, Last of the Saddle Tramps, and of the Horse Travel Journal.

We finished Messanie's story, in no time (read aloud from the saddle) and have heartily recommended it to folks back home.  I'm keeping the log diligently.

[Webmaster's note:  how pleased Messanie would have been to know her book was being read while on horseback!]

We're in central Montana now and just contacted Russ Barnett today via email.  We met the postcard writers from Trail Riders magazine and they were helpful, too, and gave us some more connections in the wilderness areas of western Montana.

We've raised over $1000 for Heifer so far, so that's going well, too.

The ponies look good -- still a little fat, actually, except for the packhorse, who is putting on muscle but has to be kept on oats (she's a good weight, but not fat).  So far we've received lots of compliments on their health.  We've had to do a lot of experimenting and fiddling with pads and such, but all seems well. 

Pack horse was pretty stressed out at first but seems to be settling in, now. Puppy is well, but had to get booties for her.  She walks at least half of the miles and rides the rest.

We started off pretty slowly but rode an average 100 miles/week during our first month.  We're pretty laid back about getting places, since we don't have any real deadlines.  We've also made grazing a life priority -- the ponies get a lot to eat!

Incredible hospitality everywhere -- we've been in the newspaper in half the towns we passed through, too.

For more information, please visit April and Dana's blog.

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