The Long Riders' Guild

Wagon Travel

Since its formation, The Long Riders' Guild has been contacted by many people who have made journeys with horses and wagons. Although they do not qualify to be Long Riders, they clearly have the same problems as we do; the daily need to find grazing and water for their horses, taking care of their horse’s health, experiencing trouble with border crossings and the necessity of shoeing their equine companions. In addition, wagon travel provides a safe environment for families with young children. In support of our travelling "cousins," we have listed those wagon-travellers that are currently known.

The Wagon Travel Handbook, by David Grant

The Wagon Travel Handbook

The Long Riders' Guild is proud to present the finest book ever penned about modern wagon travel, a volume which embodies a wealth of hard-earned experience and lore gained by David Grant. He is the legendary Scottish wagon-master who journeyed around the world with his family in a horse-drawn wagon, thereby gaining entry into The Guinness Book of World Records. Grant has filled The Wagon Travel Handbook with all the practical information a first time-wagon traveller will need before setting out, including sections on interior and exterior wagon design, choice of draught animals, veterinary requirements and frontier formalities. Also included are valuable personal accounts gleaned from other modern wagon masters interviewed for this book, including the young couple travelling from Pennsylvania to Patagonia and the family who has spent the last five years slowly discovering the beauties of Europe. Their collective problems, and inventive solutions, are presented in this amply illustrated volume, as is the remarkable story of the most famous wagon traveller of the 19th century.
Please click on image to learn more.

	Chariot Opens Equine Travel to people in wheelchairs In 2007 Simon Mulholland created a remarkable chariot. Made of light weight stainless steel and ABS plastic, the tough little vehicle was easily pulled by a small pony but proved its strength when the British inventor used it to travel the length of Hadrian’s Wall and along Britain’s coastline (top). The chariot’s creator realized there was another equally exciting potential connected to his original concept. Further experimentation saw the development of the Ibex chariot. This revolutionary equestrian transport allowed people in wheelchairs to venture into the outdoors (bottom). What began as an act of individual liberation has since swelled into an exciting new type of equestrian travel. Working with Simon in 2016 the South Downs Way National Park became the first park in Great Britain to construct an equestrian trail that can be travelled by people in wheelchairs. The 100 mile long trail is the first equestrian trail of its kind in the world that is fully wheelchair accessible.
	The Guild welcomes Wagon Master Angela Wood, who completed a 4,500 mile journey through twelve American states.
	Daisy Sadler set off at the age of 73 on a 1000 mile journey across Great Britain. Known as ‘Daisy’s ExPlodition’ the remarkable traveller raised £27,500 for the Brain Tumour Charity and won Horse & Hound magazine’s Inspiration of the Year Award in 2018.
	Sid and Jean Schmidt travelled across Australia, journeying from Quorn in South Australia to Camooweal in Queensland, a distance over 2000km, during the 1920s. They were inducted into the Outback Stockman and Heritage Hall of Fame in Longreach, Queensland.
	John and Thea Verhoeckx travelled from their home in the Netherlands to Hungary.
	Avadhuta Siromani Das and his wife Candrabhaga Devi Dasi, Hari Krishnas, travelled from Pennsylvania to Peru in their horse-drawn wagon!
	Lee Young - as well as qualifying as a Long Rider, Lee has travelled extensively across North America by mule-drawn wagon too.
	Ron and Teresa Dakotah travelled from Idaho to Oklahoma, wintering on the trail.
	David Grant - During the seven years 1990 to 1997, David and his family accomplished the first complete circumnavigation of the globe in a horse-drawn caravan. They travelled through 15 countries on three Continents, crossed two oceans and three seas, home educating their three children on the way. David is the author of "The Seven Year Hitch" and "The Wagon Travel Handbook."
	Hans Rasmussen and Birgitte Gyrd Møller - travelled 1300 kilometres with their two young children in 2001 through Poland, the Ukraine and Romania. In addition, Hans is an Associate Member of The Long Riders' Guild because he has made a couple of journeys in the saddle in South America.
	Dave McWethy - In 1993-94 Dave travelled on the roads in a wagon from New York to Montana pulled by three Fjords, covering just over 3,000 miles. He travelled through all weathers, including the coldest winter, and the driest summer.
	Mike Muir - In 2001 Mike led an international cast of drivers with disabilities who drove wheelchair-accessible carriages more than 3,000 miles from San Diego to Washington D.C. Mike is also the President of Driving for the Disabled Inc. Mike has since made a Thousand Mile Journey in the footsteps of his ancestor, the famed American naturalist John Muir, from Louisville, Kentucky to Florida. After that, a three-year, 8,000 mile journey following Lewis and Clark from Florida, up the Mississippi to the Missouri river, on to British Columbia, then south along the Pacific to Old Mexico!
	Manfred Schulze - on his five-year journey around the world, Manfred spent much of his time in the saddle, but in the early stages of his journey used a horse-drawn wagon in parts of Eastern Europe.
	A Dutch family travelled around France in their wagon which is called Papillotte. Andre Hemelrijk, Judith Houdijk and their daughters Saphire and Yentl-Rose, have been on the road since 2000 with their two Fjord horses Gea and Terra.
	Anatoly Shimansky - drove across the USA in the 1990s.
	David and Vikki Helmuth - drove their six-horse team of Belgians from Maine to California on a 16-month journey that took them 3,800 miles through eighteen States in the late 1990s.
	At the age of 66 Mark Weissenberg declared, “I wanted to have an adventure.” After informing his wife of 36 years that he was determined to explore the United States, Mark began looking for a suitable wagon. What he found were wagons that were either too expensive or too delicate. He ended up building his own wagon. Then he hitched up his new Percheron horses, Susie and Clara-Jo, and hit the road in 2012. For each person who met Weissenberg, brought him supplies or took a picture with his wagon, they all wrote encouraging messages or their names on the wagon’s wood frame. The first message had been a prayer written in Hebrew which stated, “As you travel peacefully through the world, you shall leave a peaceful world behind.” At the end of his journey from Tennessee to Florida, Mark stated, “It's been an incredible thrill, and I'd do it all over again, especially if I was younger.”
	For more than 200 years, from around 1740, horse-drawn boats were one of the main forms of transporting goods. However, the convenience of motor-powered boats has meant that a horsedrawn boat is a rare sight on most of our canals today. The Horseboating Society of Britain exists to promote horseboating and to preserve the heritage and skills of this once common form of transport. Please visit their website.

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