4/7/2008 8:19:00 PM
Long Rider begins 3,000-mile trek
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The Daily Courier/Les Stukenberg
Bernice Ende poses with her traveling companions, from left, Honor, Essie Pearl and Claire, at a relative’s house off of Williamson Valley Road in Prescott Monday morning. |
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By T.M. Shultz
The Daily Courier
Bernice Ende carefully pulled on a new pair of skin tight leather gloves, a gift from someone she met along the trail. Her old ones had shredded from use.
The mid-morning wind blew stiffly through Sandy and Gary DeLanoy's corral near Granite Mountain.
As often happens on Ende's horseback rides of thousands of miles, the kindness of strangers has made all the difference.
"It's called road magic," Ende said: When you most need something, someone provides it.
Like a place to stay for the coming week, provided by the DeLanoys.
"I was just fascinated with the courage that it would take to do something like this," Gary DeLanoy said.
Ende is a lady Long Rider. This is the fourth year she has been riding America's roads atop her Thoroughbred mare, Honor.
This year she is leading a packhorse called Essie Pearl. Having Essie Pearl along lets Claire - the mutt with a pair of one up and one down ears and two white eyes - ride the 3,000-mile trek across country.
In a week, Ende and her trio of pals will light out for Flagstaff and beyond. Sometime in October, they will head for home - a 20-acre, off-the-grid spread in central Montana.
It is a life to yearn for, sitting five feet up in the air, watching the world pass by at three miles an hour, noticing the changes in elevation from dry and brown to moist and green, noticing the sun coming up washing the far horizon with light, then beating hot and hard overhead, then going down in a blaze of orange, melting into soft pinks and deepening purples. And finally the stars, so many stars.
"I'm not just out for some la-dee-dah adventure," Ende says thoughtfully. "It's the big picture I'm looking for."
The former ballet teacher knows that the heart of the Long Ride, as she calls it, is its legendary romance. Practitioners represent the last of a dying breed and uphold this country's always-western-pushing tradition.
"It's a tradition of freedom," Ende says.
Her Long Rides are not without fear.
"I was in New Mexico once and a range stallion tried to steal my mare," Ende said. "It was a black, black night," she continued. There was no moon. Clouds scudded across the sky, covering the stars. Honor was on the end of a picket line. The stallion came out of nowhere; ears laid back, teeth bared.
Ende knew of a fence not too far away with a gate she could put between them and the stallion. As she gathered her gear and held onto her mare, the stallion kept charging.
"It's up at me, rearing," Ende said. A heavy iron block at the end of the picket line was all she had to throw at the beast as she pulled her terrified mare along.
It was a night Ende will never forget.
When she talks to groups, "I talk to them about going beyond fear," Ende says. "The Long Ride is about freedom. It isn't about me; it's about all of us. I take it very seriously. I know I have hundreds, if not thousands, of people who ride vicariously with me.
"Their spirits," she continued, nodding toward the corral, "are in that saddle with me."
Contact the reporter at tshultz@prescottaz.com
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Posted: Thursday, December 03, 2009
Article comment by:
Sandra
Damn you have guts, Bernice, and truthfully I'd be more afraid of humans than that big wild stallion (guess that's easy for me to say, lol). I wish you the very best of all life has to give and I'll be thinking of you when the stars are out. Amazing life story.
Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Article comment by:
Willi
Bernice, good on you! to follow the heart is something most dream of and never follow. I saddled up 4years ago with my three horses and my dog. Enjoy ride far stay well. A fellow horse rider from Australia
Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Article comment by:
CT and Randy
Bernice, we consider it a gift to have you join our RV group as we sat around the campfire our last evening in Sedona! What a wonderful addition you and Clair made to our dinner .... stay in touch ... we'll keep checking in on you!
Posted: Saturday, April 12, 2008
Article comment by:
jan Bentley
Bernice your visit in Rainbow Valley AZ we will never forget. Please come back on your next journey this way! Jan Bentley
Posted: Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Article comment by:
Pete
Bernice, you are a brave and courages woman. Good Luck on your journey. All I can say..wish I was there.
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