Riding cross-country is about as close as you can get to a real cowboy experience. There was a time when the only way a cowboy went from place to place was on the back of his horse. And he didn’t gallop across those plains like it shows in them cowboy movies. Mostly he walked his horse because a horse will gallop for a while and just drop down exhausted.

Now if a cowboy wished, he could trot his horse for a good amount of time, but mostly he chooses not to since at the end of the day you will feel muscles you never thought you had. So moving across the land was largely at a walk. That way you really see the land. And your horse will last much longer and not come up lame, or break a leg in some prairie dog hole. Because if that happened, and you had to shoot your horse, if you were in the middle of some badlands, you might as well also shoot yourself!

So we will do what those cowboys did. Mostly walking, but enough trotting and some slow running so we make good time. We’ll take a packhorse or two for our food and bedding. Along the way we may visit the Cimarron branch of the Santa Fe Trail, the Black Mesa area, the Petroglyphs of Picture Canyon, old Indian settlements, and towns and homesteads that time just forgot about. And after a long day of seeing the way it looked when all there was was traveling on horseback, we’ll choose a place to camp.

It will sure feel good to get off that horse. But we won’t rest until we set up camp, find some firewood, get a good fire going, and start some supper. I can tell you that no matter what you are served, that food will taste like the best meal you’ve ever had.

We’ll sit around the fire after supper telling stories and maybe doing a cowboy song or two on the guitar, but very soon that bedroll will look mighty good – because tomorrow we will just do what we did today all over again.

It takes a good man or woman to join us cross-country riding, but it will be something you can talk about for many years and be proud that you did it.