2Raw2Ride Social Media

It’s the “romantic call of the Old West.” :roll_eyes:
A century ago people were “content” to watch stories like this in the movies, and later on TV. IDK, maybe two World Wars had left them too realistic to just up stakes and head west themselves. Hard to be believe a Marine could be so fanciful after a deployment or too, but who knows? After all there’s no mounted cavalry or even horse marines in this country.

I hate to think what his “Gunny” would say to him about this venture.
Idjit.

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I don’t think the world is behind him this time. I’ve mentioned him to two non-horsey friends of mine and they haven’t even heard of him. When they did hear me mention him they both just asked “WHY”" They seem to think the whole idea’s insane. The whole world doesn’t follow TikTok, or Instagram, or even Facebook. Those who do apparently have so little that’s real in their lives that they have to live in a fantasy online world. Sad.

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All of this but also conditioning for a long ride & certain terrain is totally different. Walking 25-30 miles without proper nutrition in Texas is not going to prepare him for the weather conditions and terrain ahead, unfortunately.

When I worked in a fox hunting barn in Nevada, we started conditioning late spring/early summer for horses that would be riding in the mountains & valleys, in altitude, three times a week at MOST (though most people had multiple horses therefore they might got one or two days through the week for 4-6hrs).

We had a 6-8 mile loop that was flat, sandy ground and then had a gradual climb up a mountain for the last half of the ride. Early in the season we walked the climb, eventually trotting and cantering the entire loop as horses got fitter. We did this through the summer and early fall before hunt season started. Even those horses wouldn’t likely be fit enough for the type of conditions and the ride Shiok is going to face with that conditioning/feed routine/etc.

I’ve seen a number of horses that weren’t properly conditioned in those terrains come to ride that never made it back home. That is Shioks unfortunate future if he isn’t stopped.

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This ex-Marine was actually fairly successful in his cross-country ride. If you look him up, you’ll see he made it from Delaware to St. Louis; it took six months. He had a few advantages over Knucklehead: he owned the horse previously and was used to riding allover town, he used a truck and trailer on the ride, scouted routes ahead of time, and used electric fencing for the horse when stopping for the day. He was also a mature business owner.

Not a real long rider, but someone who actually liked his horse.

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A lot of those old genuine western photos from the 1880s, the horses are fairly skinny by modern standards. But they were also range horses brought up in those conditions. Probably varied by season like feral horses.

In the 1880s you could ride west looking for ranch work or a gold mine or someone to rob or con, or just to get away from your marriage or the law. But horses were the main transportation obviously and the infrastructure much more friendly to horses. That said lots of greenhorns died out there, or got shipped home in rough shape.

I think that in the middle 20th century people were still close enough to the rural economy to know that a long ride was a very big deal, and if they wanted lots of horse time they could go be ranchers or go hunting with pack horses.

I’ve been surprised how many unfit adult beginners have had the long ride idea in their minds when they can’t safely go on a two hour walk trot trail ride around the park.

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There are other reasons for going on a long ride, also. I speak from experience.

When I was about a sophomore in college, my friend and I went home for Christmas, as was usual. We got bored, and wanted to go back to school, but neither of us had a car. We came up with the brilliant idea of buying a couple of ponies and riding them the 200 miles or so.

We went shopping. I bought a sweet silver dapple Shetland from a trainer I met during our shopping, cost $40. My friend got a pretty grey that still had a sales sticker on his rump. We had them trailered to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs through a national park and has wide grassy verges the whole way, intending to follow it to within about 50 miles of our destination.

We rode bareback, no bridles, using the grey pony as a packhorse. The first night was miserable; we spent it in the entranceway of a (closed) public restroom. Remember, this was in the middle of winter. The next day, our packpony got spooked, perhaps from the cooking pot banging on him, and took off. After gathering up our belongings from about half a mile of roadside, we called it quits. We hiked down the mountain to civilization and found a place to board the ponies.

I kept the pony, who I named Genevieve, in a nicely fenced lot across the street from my apartment. The lot was basically the side yard of a sweet old lady who lived with her mother. She really liked my pony and would bring out her violin and play it for the pony. Eventually, I sold the pony to a farmer with grandchildren; he wanted her because she wasn’t mean like most ponies, he said.

Even with all that, we were so much better prepared than Knucklehead. We planned a safe route, carried supplies including horse feed, and knew how to properly care for our ponies.

I still can’t believe our parents let us do that. :grimacing:

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Same thinking that has people believing they can buy their way up Mt Everest. Some gym time and new equipment they aren’t familiar with. And the $60k fee to Nepal govt plus hire a guide. Actually they are better prepared than this guy.

Apparently there is controversy on who should be bringing down the dead bodies from the mountain. It’s very difficult.

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I understand there are dead bodies from decades back stuck in the snow, no way to get them out, and they sometimes surface.

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I keep checking here for updates, hoping that poor horse has somehow been rescued from this hell.

If Netflix is interested in this saga (and I find that unlikely at this point in this IDIOT’S vision quest), I agree that it might not have the glamorous slant IDIOT imagines. Anyone see the documentary on the Fyre festival? I foresee something more along the lines of that.

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This guy carabinered the martingale to the curb chain and has given his horse NO slack.
Did you see the pictures in the link up thread?

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A Shetland? You must have been tiny to ride a small pony. Glad you were kind to her and it all worked out.

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Oh, he did a lot of things wrong, from the very little that I saw and read. But he talked about the horse fondly and it carried him a couple of thousand miles. I was only comparing him to Knucklehead, who doesn’t seem very interested in feeding his horse, not to real riders.

After looking closer at the pictures, what is it with that metal cable with carabiner attached to the curb chain? I’ve never seen that.

I use the term Shetland loosely; the pony was about 11.2 hands. For 110 pound me, that was okay for walking along the Parkway. I rode her a bit afterwards, bareback with a halter, and she was nicely trained for WTC (I did buy her from a professional trainer). Sweet pony. But I needed a real home for her and a farm seemed like a pretty good idea. Although I worried that the farmer’s grandchildren wouldn’t know how to treat a pony, especially one that had been treated and ridden properly and didn’t have defense mechanisms.

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I wondered about brand inspections too but figured when he bought the horse he ended up with a current one. If for some reason he didn’t have the brand inspection handy he could be stopped at the state line at least until they checked it out and maybe got some official eyeballs on the horse’s condition. Maybe someone could plant a seed so he at least gets checked.

We build our horses up to lots of miles in the mountains, real mountains, but they get rest days and tons of feed and we know when to stop for them. I hate to think what this poor horse is going through.

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He hasn’t posted in a long time. Has the horse finally been turned over?

Send the story to the Daily Mail. They will be allll over this especially if guy wanted to be on reality tv.

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I’m still wondering why the sheriffs didn’t impound the horse after the vet said it shouldn’t go on.

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Because in Texas the bar is very low for showing you are taking care of livestock.

This is one of the TikTok content creators who is giving updates and has videos of the horse’s current condition.
https://www.tiktok.com/@foxtrotequine/video/7226735359848205610?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7221970902232122926

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Don’t they have large group rides anymore? I thought there was one in Nebraska? If not, they should revived. Just a nice, long, ride on horse friendly trails with established campgrounds. It would be a lot of fun and maybe fulfill the wanderlust people get. Much safer riding in a group with safety checks.

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Thank you @Bogie, that’s what I was waiting for. I can’t have my own tik -tok account, for reasons, but i can see it on links.

Her info tracks the rumors. As I’ve noted, 2Raw’s behavior and refusals of present and necessary help paint an increasingly dire picture to me. To me, he isn’t stupid, he’s in some sort of mental crisis that has departed reality.

Unfortunately the horse is trapped in his delusion.

People are saying ‘why doesn’t TX law enforcement do something?’ But TX LE in San Angelo did do something. They dragged his ass and his horse to the veterinarian. They forced him to listen.

Unfortunately, under the law, as it is now, that is all they can do in the current situation.

TX law for horse abuse is county by county. I doubt it gets better going north through the panhandle. Had he been in another part of Texas, they might have been able to do more.

I don’t know what to expect from law-enforcement in New Mexico, and Colorado. But he still has a few more counties to go through Texas. So we will see.

If the horse is barely moving, I don’t know if that will help bring this to an end, but maybe it will.

Can activists take some extra judicial action? I honestly do not know what the outcome would be.

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