Have you ever thought about what it would be like to ride long distances on horseback, camping and sleeping under the stars like people did long ago? Well, some people are still making these long rides today. They call themselves Long Riders and Bernice Ende is one of them.
Bernice, Pride and Claire Dog, on the road in 2005.
Bernice’s first long ride was in 2005. On May 5th of that year, accompanied by her dog Claire Dog and riding Pride, a Tennessee Walking horse, Bernice rode out of Trego, Montana. Her final destination was 2,000 miles away, where she planned to visit her sister in Edgewood, New Mexico.
1. How many years ago was Bernice’s first ride?
2. Referring to the map below, in what direction did Bernice, Pride and Claire Dog set out that first day; north, south, east or west?
From Montana to New Mexico
The average speed of a horse travelling at a walk is 4 mph.
3. What does ‘mph’ stand for?
Bernice covered between 20 and 30 miles each day, stopping every five days or so for a rest day.
4. How many hours would Bernice need to ride to travel 20 miles in one day?
5. How many hours would she ride to travel 30 miles in one day?
Bernice chose to carry a light load, traveling with only enough food to last three days. Shelter and water were always a concern, especially when they reached the desert areas of Wyoming and New Mexico.
The hot roads wore down Pride’s horseshoes and both Bernice and Clare Dog got blisters on their feet. Several times Bernice had to tape Clare’s feet with duct tape to protect them.
“I came from Montana and the Tetons where there was water everywhere, then all of a sudden it hit me, I was afraid I wouldn’t find water,” Ende said. “After three or four days in the desert, I hit the wall. Then I came to a ranch that took me in.”
Don and Janet Irwin live on a ranch near Green River, Wyoming. Janet said her neighbour, Michelle Sherwood, met Bernice on the road and directed her to their house. Janet answered the knock on her front door the night Bernice arrived.
“It surprised me,” Janet said. “I didn’t expect to see a woman standing there, especially with a horse and a dog. We told her, yes, she could stay for the night.”
Don had spent many years as a cowboy. He recognized Pride and Bernice’s need for rest and suggested they stay on for five days. Once rested, Bernice traveled 14 miles south to the Green River Fairgrounds where they stopped for the night.
6. Assuming Pride walked all the way that day, how long did it take them to travel 14 miles?
Along her journey, Ende took great pleasure in the scenery, the people she met and the wildlife. She saw antelope, mule deer, rattlesnakes, porcupines, raccoons, mountain goats, big horn sheep, white tail deer, black bear and most often moose.
Bernice, Pride, and Claire Dog finally rode into Edgewood, New Mexico on September 25th, 2005.
7. How many days did it take them to travel the 2,000 miles from Trego, Montana to Edgewood, New Mexico?
“Overall, it was a humbling experience,” Ende said. “It makes you realize what our forebearers had to go through to settle here. They were hardy men and women.”
1. How many years ago was Bernice’s first ride?
Answer: 2019 – 2005 = 14. Bernice’s first ride was fourteen years ago.
2. Referring to the map below, in what direction did Bernice, Pride and Claire Dog set out that first day; north, south, east or west?
Answer: south
3. What does ‘mph’ stand for?
Answer: miles per hour
4. How many hours would Bernice need to ride to travel 20 miles in one day?
Answer: 20 ÷ 4 = 5. Bernice would have to ride 5 hours to cover 20 miles at a walk in one day.
5. How many hours would she ride to travel 30 miles in one day?
Answer: 30 ÷ 4 = 7.5. Bernice would have to ride 7 and one half hours to ride 30 miles if she walked the entire distance.
6. Assuming Pride walked all the way that day, how long did it take them to travel 14 miles?
Answer: 14 ÷ 4 = 3.5. It would take them 3 and one half hours.
7. How many days did it take them to travel the 2,000 miles from Trego, Montana to Edgewood, New Mexico?
Answer: 26 days (May 5 to May 31) + 30 days (June) + 31 days (July) + 31 days (August) + 25 days (September 1 to September 25) = 143. It took them one hundred and forty-three days.
Click here to see Bernice’s wonderful website where you will find plenty of pictures and information about Bernice, her horses, Claire Dog and the Long Rides they’ve made over the years since that first one in 2005.
Click here to find out more about Long Riders.
Horse Lover’s Math has more posts about long riders. Click here for a story about a group of men who rode from the Mexican to Canadian on mustangs. Or here for a story about a young man who rode from Canada to Brazil! Or here for a story about a woman who rode from China to London, England.
Common Core:
3.MD.A – Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time
4.NBT.B.4 – Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
4.OA.A.2 – Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division word problems
5.NBT.B.7 – Division with decimal quotients
Photos:
All photos are courtesy of Bernice Ende
Just came across an article about Bernice and her two horses, Montana Spirit and Essie Pearl on their current ride. On April 1, they headed out on an 8,000 mile ride from the northwest corner of Montana to the east coast where she plans to spend her winter. They’d just arrived in New Hudson, Michigan. Her ride will continue into Canada; she’ll ride coast to coast, and then head home through Washington and Idaho by 2016 — she hopes. We’ll have to do more posts!
Bernice, Montana Spirit and Essie are now in Merrill, Michigan. If you were able to go overland and not follow roads, the towns of Merrill and New Hudson are 71.90 miles apart. They’re 95.74 miles if you have to travel by road. If you were driving a car it would take about 1 hour 34 mins. It took Bernice and her horses six days. Here’s more pictures and a great article of their stop in Merrill. http://bit.ly/1tg7Of2