My name is Judy Sharrock. I have decided to undertake
a journey across
Scotland and England to raise as much money as I
possibly can for charity and as a
"small" life challenge
as if there were not enough challenges in life already!!
Starting on the 1st May this year I plan to ride two horses from
John
O
Groats
to
Lands
End.
The challenge is still being planned and there are still
a huge number of things
to think about, although I have had plenty of help from friends and contacts.
The planning falls into a number of self explanatory categories;
Horses
Westy
I have Westy, a little chestnut
TB who I have ridden for the last six years. We know each other inside out
but he is now 17 so as an a bit of an old boy (thought he does not behave like
it) he will probably need a bit of support from a mate along the way. He is the one I'm riding in the title banner.
A very good friend, Peter Cross, has very kindly agreed to lend me his horse,
Monty.
Monty is a fantastic horse for this ride and I am very lucky that Peter
has agreed to lend him to me.
How far we will be able to travel each day will be difficult to estimate and
will depend on terrain, weather and all the inevitable emergencies we encounter.
My working assumption is that using two horses probably makes an average of between 20 and 25
miles a day feasible. The route will be over 1000 miles (due to detours to avoid
main roads, town etc), that will give a journey time allowing for a few hiccoughs
along the way of about 8 weeks.
Drew and Alex Harris, who look after my horses, have offered to meet me on the
ride every two weeks to swap horses. This makes the logistics much simpler for
me but a lot of miles for them to drive!
The Route
Working this out is proving a mission. I have enlisted the help of Access and
Bridleway teams of the BHS and other organsisations and much of the route is now sorted – although
there is still work to do.
South of Inverness
We will be riding through some of the most desolate and beautiful parts of the UK, so, not getting lost will also be a challenge! There are some very smart aids to
navigation available on the market these days and I plan to make full use of
them. I am currently researching which can be operated and read from the back
of a horse , even by the short sighted!!
Accommodation
A two horse lorry will be the backup vehicle. Accommodation
for horse rider and the poor souls who end up driving the lorry and otherwise
supporting the effort will be a mixture of camping based around the lorry and "B&B".
The transport
Hopefully, we can identify potential places to stop along the way although it
is impossible to plan now where we will be each night for two months.
In any event, finding B&B or an appropriate camp site each night will require
some planning and, when things go wrong a bit of luck from time to time.
