I saw the news story when he was leaving Austin, only I didn’t know at the time who or what he was. I just saw an idiot on a paint horse take off running through a city park, scattering dogs and people as he ran through. Textbook illustration of the term “Yahoo.” He has no business being on a horse.
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I just looked at this guy’s posts. Worse than I expected, I thought he might be a bit unrealistic but he’s an ass.
That horse was in good condition when he bought him, but had lost a ton by the start of his ride. That’s enough for me.
***k him and his “destiny”.
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Does he have a current Coggins and health certificate to cross state lines? 
Instead of a horse, he should’ve chosen a bicycle. Or a stick horse. Something that’s not alive and not subjected to a human’s whims.
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The horse is supposed to be the central focus of the horseman. Feed & water is not whenever there is a chance, it is the first concern to schedule.
The horse will show his weaknesses. Someone needs to whisper in the horse’s ear not to be brave & strong. Start limping! Look hungry! Before it gets bad!
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I saw yesterday that he does not have a trailer and the young woman he purchased Falcon* / Shiok from trailered the horse to him. AND also paid for some sort of PPE; to what extent that exam was, I do not know.
From what I have read in comment sections people are telling him to get a coggins and a health cert to cross into NM.
He just reached Llano and I saw on his account that he has a police and animal control escort him into town. Some nice locals took him to dinner. No mention of how he was feeding or caring for the horse other than him stopping at a feed store, but he has no way to carry bags of feed or hay. I hope AC sees Falcon without his tack and tells him the he can’t go further.
He is 9 days in and has only gone 75-ish miles?? Averaging 10 miles a day
ALSO. He says in his first post that this will be a self funded, unsupported trip to Washington. BUT yesterday two links popped up on his bio, one for cashap and the other for his venmo. He says all funds will go to support and feed his horse.
*The horse’s name was Falcon from his previous owner.
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Well, he’ll have to pony up some of that Venmo $ for the Coggins and health certificate. Maybe while he awaits the results, the horse can rest at someone’s ranch and eat? And maybe, quietly, he’ll have a change of heart about all this.
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What most concerns me is whether he is actually feeding that horse as he is not carrying provisions. I’d read that he was letting the horse graze, but that’s not enough for that level of work for a horse carrying him (165 lbs) plus 60+ pounds of saddle and supplies.
From what I’ve seen (and he’s removed some of the videos) the horse has a large edema on its belly that it didn’t have when he bought him. I don’t think he knows enough to recognize if his saddle fits – he had the bit in upside down for quite a while.
It looks more like a social media stunt than a true ride, but he’s also not posting very often, maybe because almost all the comments are negative.
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I can’t help but wonder if he read or heard about Jesse Alexander and figured if one “adventure guy” who had never ridden a horse could do it, why couldn’t he.
I heard a few interviews with Jesse around the time his book came out, and I read the book.
While that situation did seem to work out ok and he was mostly sympathetic to his horse, the horse definitely did have a lot of challenges along the way. I remember thinking that publishing that book was going to make other inexperienced people think they should try.
I personally love reading “long ride” stories, but am also self-aware enough to know that completing a 25 mile limited distance endurance ride is a plenty big enough dream for me and my relatively fit, experienced horse.
He states in one of his first posts that its his destiny to do this. He comes from a culture that requires ??? the men of the family to go on a journey. His dad walked a great distance and his grandfather did something similar.
I am catching all of these details by reading comments from other concerned people where he is posting regularly on his IG stories (which only last 24 hrs) before they are gone. I refuse to follow him on any of his SM accounts.
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Fascinating. Plenty of people are starting the Appalachian Trail about this time of year- seems much more reasonable to do that if you need an adventure, rather that trying to ride when you’ve never been on a horse.
I’m not on Instagram or TikTok so just following snippets from other horsey people on FB. It doesn’t seem like he has a FB presence at all.
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He’s making a horse do the walking. Not exactly following in his family’s footsteps…
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I thought the same thing but apparently that was a delay in posting to keep his whereabouts unknown.
He is currently heading towards San Angelo according to people that have interacted, which leads me to believe he’s using “no highways/tolls” options on his GPS and taking back F-Ms. Apparently someone wants to donate a water system to him but he wont tell anyone where he is.
Sigh.
What is it about both long distance rides and liberty work that attract newbies and the unskilled? And possibly unwell? I’m sure there was someone out there planning to ride across the country with no tack at all…
I did 8 hour trail rides regularly as a teen and enough 4 or 5 hour rides as an older adult to know the toll it takes on a horse and rider unless you are superfit. I’ve never loved the idea of horse packing or indeed human backpacking because of being weighed down by all that gear. I do love truck camping in a place with trails in multiple directions.
If you do pack trips you need a lot of skill and an itinerary and feed options where you camp.
This dude is giving me some red flags and I think it will end early and badly in some way
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That makes things very suspicious to me.
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That and the fact he’s now asking for money for Shiok are both suspicious and concerning to me. 
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I just watched a TikToc over lunch with a women trying to find him somewhere near Abilene ??. It was over a live where she was reaching out to people to get that water system to him before he gets to West Texas.
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The “escort” may be friendly, but I am betting that they are there with a purpose to look over the horse’s condition. And will hopefully have a chat with 2Raw about taking care of a horse, generally, as well as specifically on a journey like this.
Is it possible that this whole thing is just attention-seeking? In addition to online followers, if he expects to be welcomed into every community along the way, that is a lot of welcoming.
At 10 miles per day … why not just walk? Oh well, in his case I don’t get this anyway.
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Actually that is one of the few things that isn’t suss to me.
For any traveler of this type, if his location and exact route plan are public, it will catch trouble. People will be hassling the traveler for all kinds of reasons. Plus outright criminals wishing to steal and/or do harm. Much wiser to keep his whereabouts private.
However it would seem he is posting so much information that it won’t be at all hard to find him. There are fewer and fewer roads and people on his trajectory. He wouldn’t be hard to find if someone wanted to do that, especially someone local.
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So he figured out that he actually has to feed his horse.
How is the horse getting water? That is barren country where he is now. And it gets more so as he continues northwest … and probably even more so as he gets to the even-higher high plains.
This guy must not be much of a geographic scholar, either. He is following the great Sonoran Desert until he’s into the mountains. It begins in northern Mexico and extends up the east side of the Rockies.
The Sonoran Desert is classified as the wettest desert in the world. But it’s still a desert. Ground water along the roads is scarce to non-existent. Grazing along the roadside is haphazard. Depending on where he goes, there isn’t even reliable pasture, maybe just scrub land.
I suppose 10 miles per day is not too pressing on the horse, fingers crossed on that. I am guessing that if he does continue, he will go up the experience curve and start making more miles per day.
Has he shared a route plan? Depending on what roads he travels, there are some serious mountains in NM and southern Colorado … and then there is the Rockies. Plus he is climbing elevation the entire time until he crosses the continental divide … which is in the Rockies, so after that, a lot more mountains … and I don’t know about the trail and elevation from there to Seattle.
Anyway. At this rate he is rapidly falling behind his schedule. He may yet run himself into the ground before that happens to his horse.
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Also, what is going to happen to this poor horse after this moron breaks him? Best case scenario is that a kind stranger takes pity on him and takes him in near where he breaks down. WHEN Falcon breaks down / colics / runs away will he just get a new cheap horse and continue this journey burning through equine after equine until he reaches Seattle? Otherwise I can see him trying to sell him on SM trying to turn a profit now that that the horse is an influencer who helped him on his ‘soul quest’ or whatever.
This whole ‘depending on the kindness of strangers’ really irks me. I know plenty of tech bros just like him. They are so arrogant and entitled and believe they truly are smarter than everyone else. He’s assuming that he can stay on people’s ranches without the slightest thought about bio security or the animals comfort. He is so triggering to me.
He made decent money, but had to arrogance to quit his job and is now asking for donations?!? Buddy, if you want to find yourself or take a gap year off from adulthood good for you. Go finance it yourself and don’t drag any innocent animals along in your wake.
rant over.
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