Couple undertakes long-distance horse trek

Yesterday, June 15, my husband Pete Praetorius and I embarked on a four-month horse trek that will take us from northern Colorado to (at least) northern Montana. We’ll ride our two Icelandic horses (named Raudhetta and Siggi) and pack a third (named Signy). We’ll be accompanied by Rainbow, our 12-year old Montana cattle dog/husky mix.

This trip is the second part of an ongoing adventure. I determined that I wanted to do long-distance horse trekking in August 2003, shortly after bicycling solo from northern Montana to southern New Mexico. Afterward, I told Pete that it would be equally fun to do this route on horseback.

I began working toward this goal shortly after we moved back to Alaska from Butte, Mont. I took on a job cleaning horse pens at Bill and Katie Long’s Moose Creek Ranch, and a year later purchased Raudi, a young Icelandic filly, with the intent of training her to do this trek. I chose to go with this particular breed because I’d heard that they’re hardy, trail savvy and easy to get along with.

Pete signed on to do the trip with me three years later, the day on which Raudi bolted and unseated me. This was with the proviso that we do the trip from south to north. This way we’d be more apt to have ample forage. Proviso notwithstanding, I said that I’d welcome his company. His mount would be Siggi, our second Icelandic horse.

We trailered south, and then rode from southern to northern Colorado in spring/summer 2011. We were then new to this form of travel. For instance, heavy snowpack and limited grass in the Rockies forced us to make several detours. This was because we left Alaska in mid-May. This time, we’ll be leaving here in early July.

We’ll again be riding Raudi and Siggi. The most important thing that we learned the first time around is that a trip of this magnitude requires considerable planning. So once again we made innumerable lists, and one by one crossed items off these lists. Horse and human conditioning is, and remains, a priority. I rode and walked the horses nearly every day this winter, and I attended Dori McDonnald’s twice-a week Rise and Shine yoga class at Midnight Sun Yoga.

We live off the grid and have horses, dogs, goats and chickens, so trip logistics remain our greatest challenge. The first of our two main lists is home-based. It again includes categories titled “Find Summer Home for Animals,” “Find House/Garden Sitter,” “Turn Compost.” The second one is for trip particulars. Categories include human/animal food preparation, gear preparation, on-road trip planning, and trail and trip planning.

Take food preparation. We again dehydrated most of our food. We lack a conventional power source, so this is a more complicated task than it otherwise might be. We recently purchased a shopping cart full of fruits and vegetables at Costco, prepared the food at home, took the dehydrator over to a neighbor’s place and made frequent produce checks. We next vacuum packed the goods. After, we prepared the boxes ready for shipping (a friend will mail us food drops).

Trip planning is a rather nebulous category, which is why it also has several sub-categories, one of which is “Find Place to Stay at Beginning of Trip.” Both times, my being a member of the U.S. Icelandic Horse Association made this an easier task than it might otherwise have been. This year, we’re planning on spending a few days at Hanging Mountain Icelandic Horse Ranch. This way horses and humans both will acclimate to high altitudes before heading north.

The main difference between our first trip and our second is that we’ll be doing more social networking this time around. To this end, we’ve purchased an e-phone, which we’ll use in conjunction with an iPad. This will allow me to post messages on Facebook and on my website, alysculhane.com. Both Pete and I hope that interested readers will live vicariously through what is an ongoing adventure.

Alys Culhane lives in Palmer and is a freelance writer. She has agreed to keep Frontiersman readers updated about the crew’s whereabouts and ongoing adventures on a monthly basis.