Sea G Rhydr bought her horse for a dollar. Then she rode him 5,000 miles across America.

Sea started her voyage in Northern California in the fall of 2011 with two imperfect horses, a diamond hitch she'd learned the night before, and a canvas tablecloth painted with fairies and mushrooms for a ground cloth. Twenty-five months later she rode into Minot, Maine — bridle-less, flag in hand, walking pneumonia — to lead a parade honoring the long rider who had inspired her whole journey.
It's a miracle she and her mounts completed her journey. Her pack pony colicked in the wilderness with no vet and no Banamine. A fistula on her horse's withers put the trip on hold for two and a half months. She survived six degrees in the Mojave with hand warmers stuffed in her socks and house wrap for insulation. She crossed the Mojave with a borrowed truck and a bucket on a rope thrown over a fence into a canal.

In this conversation, Sea talks about forging an unbreakable bond with a horse nobody else wanted, the songs she sang to keep them both calm on a trail above a thousand-foot drop, and the one thing that turned the whole trip around when everything else stopped working: having the right story to tell.

Guest: Sea G Rhydr — long rider and author who completed a 5,000-mile continuous saddle voyage from Northern California to Minot, Maine, finishing the first Mesannie Wilkins Memorial Ride.
Q&A with Sea G Rhydr: Driving a Wagon Through America

Links: FreeRangeRodeo.com / YouTube Hello Neighbor

Chapters:

People: Creators & Guests

• Sea G Rhydr - Guest

Click here to view the episode transcript.

For more stories of long riders, sailors, ramblers, adventurers, and dreamers finding their way, visit TravelGrit.com.