Long distance riding.

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Count Oggy

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Has anyone here done a long distance ride? I've been thinking of it for a while now and was wondering what obstacles or planning issues people had come across. I want to do it to raise some money for a charity and it would be around 100km taking 4 or 5 days. So, I suppose my questions are, did you carry all your supplies or drop them off in advance or have a support team? Did you have difficulty finding hosts for overnight stays? How did you ensure the route was suitable to ride along? I think I'm actually going to have to drive and walk most of my route to find out as it covers three counties and I don't think anyone has jurisdiction over its entirety. And lastly how long did it take to plan? Any other advice would be very welcome. Kendal mint cake all round.
 
I have been involved in a number of Long Distance Charity Fundraising Rides.
We had a support team of cars and lorries.
Finding overnight accommodation required research but we used local riders in the areas we intended staying at to assist us.
Endurance people helped us with the research of the routes and rode them beforehand to make sure they were o.k..
Planning took a good 12 months for some of the rides.
Take a look at The Long Riders Guild www.thelongridersguild.com
 
PeterNatt said:
I have been involved in a number of Long Distance Charity Fundraising Rides.
We had a support team of cars and lorries.
Finding overnight accommodation required research but we used local riders in the areas we intended staying at to assist us.
Endurance people helped us with the research of the routes and rode them beforehand to make sure they were o.k..
Planning took a good 12 months for some of the rides.
Take a look at The Long Riders Guild www.thelongridersguild.com
Click to expand...
Brilliant link, thank you. I never thought of leasing with endurance riders. We have no bridleways here so they might have good alternative routes if mine turns out to be unsuitable.
 
You can google something called The Really Long Ride about a threesome who rode across Europe, from the UK. I don't know the name of the book but a lady rode and led two Highland Ponies from John O Groats to Lands End and raised money for the RDA. I think it was 2002/03.
 
Always wanted to do this but think it would take alot of organising. So Im doing the dartmoor derby which is something like 100km over 3days all sorted for me! I recon if you were organising this yourself would be alot easier to have some non horsey friends /family staying at the accommodation your riding to (so they can drive you're stuff over)
 
Rollin said:
I have found the link - correction it is the fairly big ride

http://www.rideopenspaces.co.uk/the fairly big ride.htm
Click to expand...

Great link thanks. I like the idea of using hackamores so they can eat during the day. They are covering many more miles than I plan to but it's a really good to read the experiences of people who have done it properly. If I really get stuck or have a disaster I'd never be more than an hours drive away from home. They had no such reassurance of a quick rescue. I now have os maps that show the route and alternatives if any of it is out of bounds for horses. Unfortunately the majority is roadwork thought there's a nice mountain Road which looks fairly quiet and a couple of tracks through forestry. My OH has suggested that we walk some of the road sections we're unsure of to see how vulnerable we feel. I think it must be do-able though. If Wales to Jordan is possible, my short jaunt must be.
 
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