Young sons of U.S. marshal ride horseback from Oklahoma to New York (2018)

> The boys’ father agreed to their cross-country ride and helped them plan the route. Abernathy postulated a few rules before they set out: They could not travel more than 50 miles in one day

I've done very long distance pack-horsing in wild places and these are indeed the big problems. There's this thing like the tyranny of the rocket equations.. a horse can't carry what it needs to drink, so you almost have to follow rivers or know exactly where they are and when you'll hit them. I came from long-distance cycling too where I would think nothing much of 100 miles on a good day even on trails, carrying food and water no problem. Not going to happen with horses on long solo trips without logistical support.. you can push limits for days without consequence but not for weeks

Fwiw i used to do huge horserides growing up in rural Australia in more recent times. It takes the region (or era) having support for it. There's literally horse tie-ups and grassy fields at the rest stops around Taree to support this. eg. The metal teepee's in the following street view next to the tables are for horses to tie them up as you take a break.

https://www.google.com/maps/place//@-31.9637446,152.4642729,...

If you zoom out on that link you'll see the entire area is cross-crossed by horse trails, they form a network for many hundreds of miles in every direction and everyone i knew growing up had a horse (they aren't that expensive if you have a paddock to feed them and with so many horses in the area the farrier/vets are relatively competitive).

Once a year during school holidays there was a horse jamboree (NSW pony club jamboree, still happening to this day) where you'd all make your way to one of the regions pony clubs with camping equipment (a different pony club hosted each year) for competition. They'd have routes planned out, camp sites assigned and stalls strung up with electric fence wire to keep your horse in. Some years we'd float (Australian term for using a horse trailer to get there) but other years could be a 100 mile multi-day ride.

A pair of 9 and 11 year old boys made a similar trip going from Needham MA, to the World’s Fair in Montreal. They did it with a pony/pony-cart in 1967. PBS did a really nice short documentary on them where they're interviewed.

https://www.vermontpublic.org/show/made-here/2024-09-05/pony...

Traveling cross-country at age 10 and 6. Amazing that all they needed was a letter saying they weren't runaways, and people seemed to think this was a neat adventure for them.

The Dollop did an excellent episode on this misadventure, recorded live in Tulsa: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/299-the-dollop-with-dave-anth...

Related to cross-country horseback rides, much of the original 1860 Pony Express route is still ridden annually by historical reenactors. This year's ride will be June 15 to 25 from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA (~2,000 miles). It's pretty cool to see if you're near the route. It's also possible to post a letter. https://nationalponyexpress.org.

Quite the contrast from the free-range childhood discourse of today.

They don’t make em like they used to.