2Raw2Ride Social Media

[OverandOnward]

@BatCoach

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.

Yeah I was once visiting a somewhat remote location with one small convenience store that had gas, soda, beer and chips, and not much else. Some well-fed wanderer with a dog was sitting on the front steps loudly begging for money to feed his dog. No one was responding (not many people to ask, really). So he started loudly berating the crowd for not being generous for a hungry dog. The general feedback he was getting was the dog is your responsibility, buddy, get a job, at least offer to do some work for the store owner. He just wanted to sit there and have people bring him things, for himself, too, I’m sure.

If that’s Knucklehead’s game, he is in dangerous region to play it. Some people may be sympathetic to him. But those that aren’t might be inclined to teach a lesson. I would not mess around in that country.

[OverandOnward]

The more I look at the map, having lived and traveled in a lot of that area up to about Utah/Nevada … damn, this knucklehead has picked one of the least-horse-friendly routes in America.

North Texas & northern NM are rough, but that part is nothing compared with the horrors of Utah/Nevada. Assuming he goes around the southern end of the Rockies and not through them. He will be routing through some of the least-populated and driest expanses of geography on the continent. There are reasons people don’t live there.

And it’s high as well, elevations of multiple-thousand feet even outside of the mountains. It can freeze and snow at any time. When it is not frying living creatures, with no shade. The terrain is like the dark side of the moon, the rocky part.

There are spaces where there aren’t even towns closer together than 40 miles. With absolutely nothing between them but a few cows. What farmhouses is he planning to approach? There aren’t any.

He may just disappear out there and we never know what became of him. Maybe the horse will wander back into one of the tiny towns. We might never know that, either.

[redpony1]

@OverandOnward

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.

I do agree with you, but for someone that was originally “trusting the kindness of strangers” and documenting this trip a ton - it’s odd not to mention where you’re going next and posting with major delays. Especially, if someone wants to help you.

@MunchingonHay

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.

I watched the same one. She kept saying San Angelo and then would also say Abilene. I think it would make more sense to go Abilene, but if he’s trying to avoid big cities & people, he might go the San Angelo route.

What I assume he’s done is typed in Seattle WA from his GPS and clicked off highways & tolls to stay on smaller FM roads and off major roads. With that, I think he’s taking either of these two (three technically) routes through the area:

The area he’s heading into is not for the faint of heart, neither will the rest of this journey as he heads into NM & the mountains. I’ve spent a lot of time in this part of TX/NM and I wouldn’t do it without a ton of planning and a huge support system.

[MunchingonHay]

Thanks for the insights with your experience with that area @redpony1 and @OverandOnward you make excellent points on there being n o t h i n g in the area he is traveling into.

@BatCoach, I hate to say it, but Falcon/Shiok is going to pay the price for his stupidity.

The good news is that a lot (of what I have seen) of TT videos from horse people, is that they have turned this into a learning opportunity for non-horse people. Foxtrotequine is one of them (she was the live I watched) and I can’t remember the names of the other posters.

There was a lady earlier today that did a body composition post showing why she is worried about Shiok’s condition and its like watching Double Crown Bo’s progress videos backwards.

[OverandOnward]

Abilene is pop. 125k. It’s a big city for those parts. But nothing out there is a big city. Until you get to Los Angeles. Not kidding, y’all.

Also whereever there is a bit of a population center, it is not surrounded by suburbs and stuff. It’s like Dorothy approaching the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz. There is a lot of absolutely nothing, then up pops a little city with modestly-statured buildings, then back to absolutely nothing.

When city people are bemoaning that America is being built and paved over, I tell them that I know where there is space. Lots and lots and lots of space. Don’t know if you want to live there, but there is space.

The outer parts of the back of nowhere.

Popular topic of conversation at the local Dairy Queen: The spots where you can get a cell phone signal, and from which provider. This is a complex discussion that can go for an hour.

And that’s the densely populated part compared to where he seems to be going.

I don’t think he’s going to get that far. Too under-prepared. There is no mercy in that wilderness. Hopefully he quits near a working phone signal.

@MunchingonHay

before he gets to West Texas.

He’s already in West Texas. Making his way into Northwest Texas.

Everything west of Austin is very, very West Texas. John Wayne western movie style.

It’s kind of weird, but I-35 is the dividing line between East and West Texas, with Central Texas between I-35 and Hwy 6. Someone drew an insightful line on the map for I-35.

@MunchingonHay

There was a lady earlier today that did a body composition post showing why she is worried about Shiok’s condition and its like watching Double Crown Bo’s progress videos backwards.

If we can get that in front of an animal control officer on the routes … except that out there, there usually isn’t one of those. They have other problems to solve first.

But a sympathetic deputy sheriff might help. If we can figure out who/where that is.

Just to illustrate …

Photo below: A big part of where he is going in Texas east of the NM border. It looks the same in NM until it gets really dry - and buttes & mountains to travel around. This is the flat part. Although this is a gradual but constant uphill grade, as you notice by your gas mileage. Acres to the cow, not cows to the acre.

Notice the general lack of fencing because cows have to get to water somewhere or they die. Although there is some road fencing so they don’t get on the road and kill motorists who can’t see them at night, being as nighttime is pitch dark and headlights are of limited help.

The city of Abilene, TX. I don’t know when that was taken but it must have been on a Sunday morning well before early church services.

[Spudsmyguy]

But your ride was on flat ground. This one has real elevation to deal with - Cascade mountains, Sierras, etc.

[ShenanAnna]

@BatCoach

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?

Poor horse already ran away at least once. Moron chased him down with a car and, unfortunately, caught him.

Maybe another prison break is in order…

[MunchingonHay]

I also heard that he said on TV New that he is a Champion Showjumper and rode for many years. I don’t doubt that he had lessons at one point, but apparently there is no record of him being a champion jumper.

The donations for his cashapp/vemno has now been changed from supplies and feed for Falcon/Shiok to beer money.

ETA that there has been a show record found.

[Bogie]

There is a Facebook Group now dedicated to helping the horse. Sadly in recent video, the horse looks lame and has lost considerable weight.

Stop 2Raw2Ride- save Falcon(Shiok) | Facebook

[trubandloki]

@MunchingonHay

ETA that there has been a show record found.

I think you need to tell us more about this.

[MunchingonHay]

I clicked on the facebook link that Bogie provide and scrolled down. Its from 2015.

[trubandloki]

I wonder what “Children’s riding” is?

[FromTheGalaxy]

Since the post is from QC Canada I’m guessing the post was translated from French and they probably didn’t actually say “children’s riding.” Maybe child/adult, but I’m unfamiliar with show jumping divisions in Canada.

[Scribbler]

@FromTheGalaxy

Since the post is from QC Canada I’m guessing the post was translated from French and they probably didn’t actually say “children’s riding.” Maybe child/adult, but I’m unfamiliar with show jumping divisions in Canada.

You can be a champion at any level.

You can be a cross poles champion at schooling show series.

You could look him up for free on the Equine Canada database.

You can be a child rider in a H/j program and learn nothing about horse care.

[trubandloki]

@Scribbler

You can be a child rider in a H/j any program and learn nothing about horse care.

I edited that last sentence for you.

[ShenanAnna]

He may have ridden and even shown, but that sure didn’t make him a horseman.

[Night_Flight]

I tried to check the original post but it doesn’t show a caption for me.

[OverandOnward]

@Scribbler

You can be a champion at any level.

You can be a cross poles champion at schooling show series.

This is so true. And get huge silk ribbons and a trophy. At a barn show against 3 other walk-trot riders. Or crossrail riders. Maybe even just 1 other, maybe even it was just you.

The fact that show names and dates are not mentioned is telling to me. If someone has notable, name accomplishments to use as credentials, they like to include that info.

Plus, I don’t know what being some kind of a show jumper champion has to do with knowing how to do a long-distance ride.

[Night_Flight]

Competition results: https://events.equestrian.ca/athlete?id=5076099&lang=en

[OverandOnward]

@Night_Flight

Competition results: https://events.equestrian.ca/athlete?id=5076099&lang=en

Is there any significance that in 2015 he won some 3’ classes but didn’t get any points?