She’s slept inches away from scorpions and snakes, fended off attacks from wild stallions and broken her ribs and collarbone – all as part of an epic 10,000-mile long distance horseback ride.
But for West Wales pony breeder Megan Lewis, her four-year challenge to ride from the 2008 Beijing Olympics to the start of the 2012 Games in London is fulfilling a lifelong dream.
Megan started her epic trek in October 2008 from the end of the Great Wall of China where it reaches the sea at Shanhaiguan on the Chinese coast.
In China she suffered a three-month delay recovering from a fall from her horse but such setbacks were not going to hold Megan back from her dream.
By June 2011, Megan had traveled 5,000 miles and had just reached Europe.
1. What fraction of the entire trip had Megan travelled by June?
Megan has borrowed and traded horses for her journey including one she rescued from a meat market.
2. Megan traveled those 5,000 miles in 5 months of riding. What was her average distance per month?
“I’ve always been a rider and always wanted to do some sort of long ride,” she said.
Megan is riding 20 to 30 miles a day on her trip across Asia and Europe and is in the saddle for between six and eight hours. Her journey, dubbed the Long Horse Ride, is designed to promote good relations between Britain and China.
3. If Megan averages 25 miles a day, how many miles will she ride in a week?
4. On days where Megan rides for 8 hours and travels 30 miles, calculate her average speed in miles per hour.
Would you like to read more about Megan’s journey and see more pictures?
Check out Megan’s Long Horse Ride website and find out more about her ride.
Woman Rides from Beijing to London Answers
1. What fraction of the entire trip had Megan travelled by June?
Answer: 5,000 (distance travelled by June)/10,000 (total distance of her planned trip) = 5,000/10,000 = 1/2. She had travelled half the distance.
2. Megan travelled those 5,000 miles in 5 months of riding. What was her average distance per month?
Answer: 5,000/5 = 1,000. She averaged 1,000 miles per month.
3. If Megan averages 25 miles a day, how many miles will she ride in a week?
Answer: 25 x 7 = 175. She will average 175 miles.
4. On days where Megan rides for 8 hours and travels 30 miles, calculate her average speed in miles per hour.
Answer: 30 ÷ 8 = 3.75. Megan would average 3.75 miles per hour.
Common Core:
4.OA.A.2 Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division word problems
5.NBT.B.7 Division with decimal quotients: word problems
5.NF.A.1 Reduce fractions to lowest terms
6.SP.A.3 Calculate mean (average)
Megan has continued her long rides and is currently riding across North America! She is currently in Nova Scotia, Canada. She and her horse Lady are heading west. She expects to finish her Canadian tour in 2015, before setting off to a yet-to-be determined city on the west coast of the United States. Here is a recent article about her and Lady: http://bit.ly/TwGuvZ
Megan just passed through Ottawa, Ontario, and plans to cross the Great Lakes region over the coming months. She will then head south and west along the Pony Express Trail to San Francisco, California where her North American journey is scheduled to end in November 2016. Check out this article for the latest news! http://www.themalaymailonline.com/features/article/welsh-equestrian-continues-six-year-world-horse-ride
It’s October 2015 and Megan is in Memphis, Missouri. She plans to finish this leg of her journey in St. Joseph, before starting up again in 2016, with plans to follow the Pony Express trail out west. Ultimately she will conclude her journey in San Francisco. I’d love to create another post about her journey for HLM! http://www.memphisdemocrat.com/memphis-becomes-stop-on-welsh-womans-long-horse-ride-around-the-world
It’s May 2016 and Megan is in Nebraska. Riding her mare Lady and trailing a pack-horse gelding named Missouri, she’s making about 20 miles each day. She rode in from Melbeta on Friday morning and stopped at Legacy of the Plains museum in Gering, where she found fresh grass awaiting her team and planned to pitch her tent for the night. She plans to seek help from a Pony Express re-ride group when she heads west towards Utah. http://bit.ly/1XrbtqN
Hi – Megan here. I have only just stumbled on this website by accident. You may be aware that I finished my ride across North America in April 2017 to become the first person to ride round the world by horse. If you are interested, my book about the first stage of the ride, from end to end of the Great Wall of China, has just been published and will be launched this Tuesday. It is called ‘In the Shadow of the Great Wall’ (by Megan Knoyle Lewis) and is available on Amazon UK.
Thanks for letting us know! I’d love to read more about your ride. Will your book be available in North America?