[HN Gopher] Young sons of U.S. marshal ride horseback from Oklah...
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Young sons of U.S. marshal ride horseback from Oklahoma to New York
(2018)
Author : mhb
Score : 46 points
Date : 2026-04-18 19:19 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (texascooppower.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (texascooppower.com)
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| Quite the contrast from the free-range childhood discourse of
| today.
| A_D_E_P_T wrote:
| Even today, something quite similar is possible in Europe,
| though it helps to be of a religious bent. The pilgrim trails,
| such as the Camino de Santiago, can be walked, or taken on bike
| or horseback, by children. It happens infrequently, but if a 10
| year old wants to go on a long trek, it probably won't get his
| parents arrested. There are shelters along the route, and
| fellow peregrines to share the road with.
| ButlerianJihad wrote:
| Ironically, here in the "civilized USA", a child attending
| Mass with his parents is absolutely forbidden to go alone to
| the restroom or be unattended at any time, because of the
| tyranny of Safe Environment policies, not necessarily because
| there are predators at the gates waiting to snatch them up.
|
| In fact, even for large families where it is customary for
| older siblings to supervise the younger ones, that is also
| forbidden.
| nkrisc wrote:
| Wouldn't it be easier to just have someone monitoring the
| priest instead?
| 17383884 wrote:
| I have owned a hotel in the camino for five years. lol. lmao
| even. NO.
| NoNotTheDuo wrote:
| The Dollop did an excellent episode on this misadventure,
| recorded live in Tulsa: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/299-the-
| dollop-with-dave-anth...
| omega3 wrote:
| Why misadventure?
| tmountain wrote:
| They don't make em like they used to.
| mrandish wrote:
| Related to cross-country horseback rides, much of the original
| 1860 Pony Express route is still ridden annually by historical
| reenactors. This year's ride will be June 15 to 25 from St.
| Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA (~2,000 miles). It's pretty cool to
| see if you're near the route. It's also possible to post a
| letter. https://nationalponyexpress.org.
| burlesona wrote:
| Traveling cross-country at age 10 and 6. Amazing that all they
| needed was a letter saying they weren't runaways, and people
| seemed to think this was a neat adventure for them.
| realo wrote:
| A hundred years of Societal Progress later what do we have?
|
| Mobile phones and Karens.
| robot-wrangler wrote:
| > The boys' father agreed to their cross-country ride and helped
| them plan the route. Abernathy postulated a few rules before they
| set out: They could not travel more than 50 miles in one day
|
| I've done very long distance pack-horsing in wild places and
| these are indeed the big problems. There's this thing like the
| tyranny of the rocket equations.. a horse can't carry what it
| needs to drink, so you almost have to follow rivers or know
| _exactly_ where they are and when you 'll hit them. I came from
| long-distance cycling too where I would think nothing much of 100
| miles on a good day even on trails, carrying food and water no
| problem. Not going to happen with horses on long solo trips
| without logistical support.. you can push limits for days without
| consequence but not for weeks
| sueders101 wrote:
| A pair of 9 and 11 year old boys made a similar trip going from
| Needham MA, to the World's Fair in Montreal. They did it with a
| pony/pony-cart in 1967. PBS did a really nice short documentary
| on them where they're interviewed.
|
| https://www.vermontpublic.org/show/made-here/2024-09-05/pony...
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| Fwiw i used to do huge horserides growing up in rural Australia
| in more recent times. It takes the region (or era) having support
| for it. There's literally horse tie-ups and grassy fields at the
| rest stops around Taree to support this. eg. The metal teepee's
| in the following street view next to the tables are for horses to
| tie them up as you take a break.
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/place//@-31.9637446,152.4642729,...
|
| If you zoom out on that link you'll see the entire area is cross-
| crossed by horse trails, they form a network for many hundreds of
| miles in every direction and everyone i knew growing up had a
| horse (they aren't that expensive if you have a paddock to feed
| them and with so many horses in the area the farrier/vets are
| relatively competitive).
|
| Once a year during school holidays there was a horse jamboree
| (NSW pony club jamboree, still happening to this day) where you'd
| all make your way to one of the regions pony clubs with camping
| equipment (a different pony club hosted each year) for
| competition. They'd have routes planned out, camp sites assigned
| and stalls strung up with electric fence wire to keep your horse
| in. Some years we'd float (Australian term for using a horse
| trailer to get there) but other years could be a 100 mile multi-
| day ride.
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(page generated 2026-04-18 23:01 UTC)