During the course of my first office job, I wrote several chapters of a book that will never see the light of day. It’s titled “Through the horse’s ears” and was pure escapist prose, where the heroine proceeds onto her equine based adventure with utter surety and smoothness. Seriously, I reread this a few years (and a few house moves) later and realized nothing went wrong for the over 100 pages I’d managed to put to paper. This was also the period in my life I picked up a mild obsession with Long Riding, defined as a more or less continuous journey with an equine of over 1000 miles. The dream of waking up and making miles each day with a noble steed is old as the horse and human relationship.

It’s only natural that I pick up every book with a horse on it, even more eagerly when it’s describing a literal journey (versus the internal and relationship one we’re all going through). My current favorite is “The Ride of Her Life”, Elizabeth’s Letts account of Annie Wilkin’s ramble from Maine to California in the 1950’s. However, this review on is a modern rider’s journey, “On The Hoof” by Jesse Alexander McNeil. I have decidedly mixed feelings about this story, so let’s dive in.

The writing is engaging and Jesse is a good storyteller, really bringing folks along for the ride. I did my best to set judgement aside while reading, and it took more work during certain passages than others. For a spoiler alert, nothing truly horrific happens to either of them, and the horse lives just fine at the end. Despite several butt puckering moments along busy highways and high river bridges, they make it safely along.

My biggest beef is that it took Jesse over 2000 miles to realize the horse wasn’t just a conveyance like a bike on his previous long journeys, but rather a partner and someone who needed more than just a focus on daily miles. He describes several wounds and long stretches without water that any halfway decent horse person could have avoided or better planned for. Even towards the end, close to the Atlantic, he still doesn’t quite realize that the horse comes before cranking out the miles. There’s a lot to pick at about his horse care, especially one he’s asking to crank out anywhere from eighteen to thirty five miles a day. That said, the photos chosen to accompany the book show Pepper the horse in more or less decent condition the entire time, though one wouldn’t expect the author to include any bad photos. Jesse does take care of Pepper better than some (see the current 2 Raw 2 Ride controversy) but much less than I personally would expect for such a long journey.

This is more a story of travelling by horse, less a journey with a horse. The story arc is satisfying at the top level (they make it coast to coast) but feels overall empty to me, a horse crazy lady who spends a grand chunk of her time building a relationship with a smart and independent mare, for the purpose of travelling down trail together in balance and strength. The focus is definitely on completing the journey, not learning more about Pepper, how to care for her better overall or meet her halfway. He does incorporate more rest and better care as the journey goes on, but again the focus is on “get her better to continue”, not “get her better for her own sake.”

I did find it interesting that he switched to a cart for the Midwestern section, though that leads to its own problems. The biggest hurdle for any cross country equine traveler these days is always drivers and traffic, and cops. Jesse recounts several negative interactions with police, well expected for anyone that’s been following the journey of the 3 Mules for any length of time. The tons of folks who do help him along the way is heartening however.

Overall, I’m happy to have read it and I’m happy their journey was a success, I was mostly hoping for a bit more of an internal journey to be depicted as well.