What's on Your Travel Bucket List?

Monday May 18 2020

In this bizarre, incomprehensible earthly time of not traveling, I'm savoring a lot of memories of travel that I've been lucky enough to do throughout my life. Starting with my first 6-week backpack trip in Europe in 1989, an adventure that opened up my eyes and mind to - well, a whole new world, I've come to learn that travel is in my blood. I love maps. I love travel adventure books. I love discovering unknown (to me) places. I love travel.

There is nothing that compares to experiencing new cultures and places and people. Nothing else feels like waking up in a new country and smelling the morning scent of a place on the other side of the world. Each one is unique and lodges in your memory cells, and decades later, a photograph from that place can trigger those smells and feelings again.

I like how adventure traveler Mark Jenkins described it in To Timbuktu: A Journey Down the Niger, how he felt after living for a year in Europe as a kid: 

"We were just dirt and snow kids from the high plains of Wyoming when the rest of the world got lodged inside us like an arrowhead too close to the spine." 

That same travel arrow lodged in my small-town Texas spine. I've spent several cumulative years of traveling (some horse related, some not), to some 36 or so different countries, and it never fails to intrigue and fascinate me, to quicken the pulse and have all my senses on high alert to all the possibilities, when stepping off a plane or train or bus in a new country.

Ever since that first trip to Europe, travel always seemed natural. See a picture of a foreign place, think, wow, I want to go there - and you just go. Our world is here for the visiting - go see it!

And note, I'm less an adventurer than a traveler, though plenty of unexpected adventures often tended to come my way. For the first backpack trips I always went solo, but most often met up with travelers along the way. In my backpack travels, I've hiked the Himalayas, 

sailed in Norway, walked in Alexander the Great's footsteps in Greece and Turkey, rode a camel on a multi-day trek in the desert of Jaisalmer, India, ridden a mad-house solidly-packed third class train across half of India, paddled Zimbabwe's Zambezi River through crocodiles and hippos.

Some travels were completely horse-related, and I've met cool horse people around the world. I've ridden a beach in New Zealand, 

galloped by pyramids in Egypt, ridden a horse on the sacred Curragh in Ireland, tolted beside an ice-covered volcano in Iceland. 

I have more horse stories to tell. I have many travel stories to recount. Some of my travel journals will make their way into book form. My first travel book, which should be out soon, will tell the tale of my first visit to Egypt. 

And there are sooooo many more places on my Travel Bucket List, so much more of the world to visit: I want to trek to K2 basecamp in Pakistan, tramp through Greenland, hike Patagonia, ride in Argentina, ride in Lapland. 

What's on your Travel Bucket List?

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Hillbillie Willie's National Geographic Moment

Sunday April 21 2019

"Get off the web and into the wild" is the campaign of the PNTS - Partnership for the National Trails System. PNTS is encouraging people to "pledge to turn your gaze from your phone and computer screen to your natural surroundings and explore a park, trail, wildlife refuge, or forest near you - even your backyard. You never know what you might discover!"

Easy for me - Hillbillie Willie and I get into the wild on a regular basis. We're surrounded by BLM high sagebrush desert, 6 miles below the Owyhee mountains, in the southwest corner of Idaho, in one of the least populated counties. On just about every ride we see some kind of wildlife: deer, antelope, sage grouse, chukar, coyotes. Willie - the off-the-track Standardbred racehorse - is quite sensible and doesn't get alarmed: he enjoys encountering the wildlife too.  

The very day I took the PNTS pledge, Willie and I had a fabulous National Geographic moment.

As we started riding down the narrow and at-places-steep Tower Trail ridge, we surprised a herd of 8 mule deer in a fold of the hills below us. We stared at each other momentarily, till the deer decided to evacuate. However, instead of moving downhill away from us, the lead doe angled straight ahead and up, aiming for the trail we were on. As we popped around a little corner, the herd had just reached the narrow trail 15 yards ahead of us; their sensible option was to run on down the trail, or to seemingly irrationally leap over the precipice down the 80-degree cliff.

There was a moment's hesitation before the lead doe committed: then she hurled herself over the edge. One by one the others followed unquestioningly - like a waterfall over a cliff - catapulting, catching air, landing 20 feet down the slope before touching ground again. The adrenaline enveloped the herd as they hurtled downward; when one stumbled she'd leap and fly another 30 feet downhill; when another almost fell down she sprinted faster down the hill with the others rocketing recklessly after. The herd's mad charge left dust curling down the cliff and they were gone before Willie even got to their leaping platform.

If I can anthropomorphize here a bit, there may have been a touch of prey-fear in the deer, but what I really sensed was arrogance - their utterly unrivaled and untouchable grace and speed, knowing that, even if this little human had wanted to, I did not have the capable mount, nor the guts, to follow them; and even if I was the Man from Snowy River and gave chase over the cliff on my horse, I could not have gotten anywhere close to them. The deer picked the steepest cliff - because they could.

A camera would have gotten a fabulous video, but I had my hands full with an excited horse! Willie gave off his own excited Deer Snort and I had to use a bit of focused riding to keep him on the trail.

It was an extraordinary deer encounter neither of us will ever forget!

#getoffthewebandintothewild

#natgeomoment

My Rocket Ship: She Got It Right!

Friday May 2 2014

So says one of the 5-star Amazon reviews for my book, Soul Deep in Horses: Memoir of an Equestrian Vagabond. "She Got It Right!" This review just happens to come from Paul Thoresen in Egypt, whose 2 fabulous horses, Borcan and Raad, are featured in two of the chapters in my book.

I recently posted a snippet of My King: Borcan. (Paul says Borcan "is now the old man of the club, trying to show a little more dignity in public.")

Here is a snippet from My Rocketship - starring Paul's other stallion, Raad (who, Paul reports, is producing offspring just like him!):

Paul turned Raad loose and let him run through the Egyptian desert, heading toward the distant speck. I let Prince do as he wished, which was a hand gallop. He was no longer interested in trying to catch that gray lightning bolt, probably because it was a lost cause. Prince was quick on his feet, but he wasn’t that fast. Where once I’d been afraid to gallop, I felt quite safe on Prince. What Prince was doing with me seemed so . . . tame compared to Raad. Watching Raad shoot away put a whole new perspective on galloping a horse.
Eventually Prince and I caught up with Jeannie and Katir, who had slowed to a walk, and together we watched Raad and Paul continue running, bearing off to the right, still at a dead run, making a huge arc out in the wide open desert, eventually coming back around full circle to join up with us again.
Raad slowed down as he approached us. I thought Paul’s trajectory had been for fun, but in fact, he hadn’t been arcing on a whim.
“This! (pant!) . . .” “Horse! (pant!) . . .” “Is! (pant!) . . .” “SO STRONG!” Paul gasped. “I couldn’t steer him!”
I thought he was kidding. Paul was a good rider, and he rode his horses on a light rein, whomever he was riding or however fast he was going. He’d given me some pointers on how to ride “light” - but it usually didn’t work for me. I still had a lot to learn about riding, although I was delighting in the fact that, finally, I loved, loved to gallop out here in the Egyptian desert because I wasn’t afraid to do it anymore.
Paul shook his head in utter bliss, his eyes gleaming. “That’s the Akhal-teke in him. They are so strong - and strong minded - they don’t bloody listen!” he said with unmistakable pride in his voice. But then, Paul so loved all his horses, anything they did just tickled him.
I was glad I wasn’t riding Raad; if Paul couldn’t control him, I’d have had no chance in holding him back.
Paul turned to me. “You want to try him?”
My eyes widened. Too strong for Paul? Can’t steer him? Can’t pull him up?
“Yeah!”
We hopped off our horses, adjusted the stirrups, and I climbed on the big gray powerful tank of horseflesh.
We gathered our reins, Paul said, “Hah, Prince!” and Prince leaped to a canter. And I was—
GONE. . .

"My Rocketship" is a wild ride in my book Soul Deep in Horses. I'll be featuring tidbits from my book on this blog from time to time. You can get the book as soft cover or ebook on Amazon.com here, or autographed copies are available on my website: www.TheEquestrianVagabond.com.

My King: Borcan

Saturday April 19 2014

I couldn't wait for our ride among the Pyramids in Egypt… until I learned I'd be riding Borcan:

Borcan, the blustery, formidable, woman-hating, breast-biting ("He's bitten three breasts so far," owner Paul declared adoringly) white stallion, who lunged at anybody, mouth wide open and teeth bared, who walked by his paddock. 

The Breast Biter himself was already tacked up and standing at his paddock fence, with his lips peeled back to expose his enormous nine-year-old teeth, which were grabbing one of his reins and clamping down tightly, grinding the rubber till it squeaked in protest, exhibiting what he'd do to me if he managed to get a hold of my breast.
  

Was it too late to back out of riding? Surely, I reasoned, Paul would not put me on a horse that would hurt me. And I really wanted to ride in the desert... 

Once I had mounted, how silly it was of me to think that Borcan would stand still and wait for the others - that was far beneath his Great White Dignity. Oh, no, it was time for the Great White Peacock Parade down the long drive. Neck bowed, white mane billowing, Borcan consented to a walk, but only so everybody could get a very long look at his magnificence. He strutted, he waltzed, he erupted with absolute equine masculinity. 

And there you have it - against my better judgement, I had already fallen for him. He was such a blustery show off, but he was simply magnificently breathtaking...

"My King" is one of my favorite chapters in my book Soul Deep in Horses. I'll be featuring tidbits from my book on this blog from time to time.

You can get the book as soft cover or ebook on Amazon.com here, or autographed copies will be available starting Monday on my website: www.TheEquestrianVagabond.com.