My previous post was deleted because I broke all the rules. I have been suitably chastised.
I/we, me 65 and a mate 85 are trying some thing a bit defferent to most who read this forum.
We are planning a horse back riding adventure riding six days a week covering 40 to 60 kilometres each day, and traversing parts of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. The largest section of the ride will be across New South Wales plains country. The ride is planned to take place April and May 2012 if everything goes to plan.
The comfort and facilities of the ride and camps will depend upon the final number of riders able to ride the entire distance of 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) and perhaps other riders who, for various reasons, can only ride sections of the planned ride. With a large number of riders taking part, there would be motor vehicles to move the camp, transport horse feed and the riders' swags (belongings), rousies to erect and take down each day the horse yards, erect and strike tents and so on. A mobile kitchen and staff to provide hot breakfasts and evening meals, with sandwiches carried by the riders for mid-day dinners. Even a mobile shower and toilet vehicle. The organisers have already arranged for a rider skilled in saddlery repairs to accompany the ride, and are hoping another rider with farriery or horse shoeing skills will also sign up. We may even be lucky enough for a vet to also come forward.
Well, that is the best case scenario, but at worst we will have to manage our own cooking and sleeping arrangements, and chip in and help erect the horse yards at the end of each day's stage, dismantle and load them onto transport in the morning.
You can follow the planning and progress of The Great Geriatric Trail Ride on our website www.thousandmiler.net and I will post on this forum any really interesting developments.
Welcome Trailboss to the forum from me, Wow! what an experience that all sounds, very exiting indeed. I will make a note of your website and also look forward to regular updates from you on here. A few photo's now and then would be great as well on here. I am sure you will get a lot of interested people on this forum they are all great people. Have fun out there, enjoy and most of all keep safe.
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Hi Trailboss, That all sounds great. A couple of things - will the horses being supplied be guaranteed quiet as some older generation (like myself) would hate to come off and break a few bones? What about insurance along the ride? Can we see a layout of the ride and what costs are involved? Starting from A to B, what happens then if we join at A - do we have to bring along our vans etc or will you be organising transport back to A from B? Is this trailride just for the benefit of grey nomads or are you planning the ride for a charity cause? cheers, Terry and Liz ( we both are riders) PS: we have house-sitting job at Kapunda in SA for 5 weeks from may 30.
Good questions TopCat. First it will be a Bring Your Own Horse and gear ride. The logistics of supplying horses is insurmountable unless you have a large property where horses are used on a regular basis. We intend to provide tents with beds and food will be provided by a camp cook. It is intended that only the vehicle required to move the camp will be along on the ride but of course if some one is along for only part of the ride there will be transport back to pick up their car and float or truck. We will be holding a public risk policy to cover us as organises of the group but each rider/participant will be participating at their own risk. At this stage it is being organised as a no profit break even trip. We haven't given any thought to using it to raise money for charity and as we say on the web site the ride is actually open to anyone. We dubbed it The Great Geriatric Trail Ride because of Lindsay's age and because our kids reckon we have finally lost the plot. Links to Google Maps are being put on the website to show some of the proposed routes. More maps later today, check back tomorrow. The actual route taken will be finalised after we have done a bit of a survey and spoken to the local station owners. Much of the trail will, we hope, be along TSRs (Travelling Stock Route) . We want it to be a bit of an experience like the stockman of the past did every day grazing the cattle on the 'Long Paddocks'.
Just thought that I would post an update on the trail ride. It is going ahead although the date has had to be changed due to the expected conditions on the ground and will now commence late September 2012 and we expect to get back early November. We have a hardy group of about a dozen riders that are all very exited about this adventure. We still have to find a couple of drivers come camp rousies to move the support vehicles and setup camp but I am sure that like everything else they will pop up in time. We are still looking for some one with movie filming experience to document the ride but I am sure that will happen as well. See all the latest info on our website http://www.thousandmiler.net.
Will try to find time to keep you posted more often as we get closer to the start date.
