Lady Long Rider

Riding 2,000 miles on horseback from Montana to New Mexico sounds like a crazy but thrilling dream or pure hardship and exhaustion. According to Bernice Ende, the trip was all that and more. Since swinging her leg over the saddle for that first long ride in 2005 (at the age of 51), Ende has logged more than 29,000 miles in the saddle, crisscrossing North America on horseback--alone. More than once she has traversed the Great Plains, the Southwest deserts, the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains. From 2014 to 2016, she was the first person to ride coast to coast and back again in one trek, winning acclaim from the international Long Riders' Guild and awe from the people she met along the way. Lady Long Rider: Alone Across America on Horseback chronicles Ende's travels, the instant friends she meets along the way, and her ongoing encounters with harsh weather, wildlife, hard work, mosquitoes, tricky route-finding, and the occasional worn out horseshoe. Ende reveals her inner struggles and triumphs--testing the limits of physical and mental stamina, coping with inescapable solitude, and the rewards of living life her own way, as she says, "in her own skin." Along the way, she discovers a sense of community and love of place that unite people wherever they live. Saddle up and come along for the journey of a lifetime.