THE REASON
After participating in the recent Coal Seam Gas protest at Glenugie (less than 5km from my property), it became clear that our politicians either don’t really know or don’t really care about the dangers of CSG. The threat to our water, our way of lives, our food supply and our futures, have led myself and a few mates to try and send a message to our government that we’re not happy. We thought we would put a team of horses together and take a ride to Canberra.
THE PLAN-So Far
We will be travelling on the Bicentennial National Trail wherever possible. This means travelling through some spectacular mountain country. It also means we may travel for a few days at a time without coming across civilisation or even crossing paths with the support vehicle. We will be camping under the stars most of the time with everything we need carried in packs or saddlebags. The support vehicle will carry feed for the horses and basic supplies for restocking packs along the way. We will be travelling around 8hrs a day; 3days travel 1day rest, for about 8 weeks. This will depend on the endurance of horses and riders of course. Short detours may allow us to visit places like Gloucester along the way.
THE SCHEDULE
We plan to leave in September once the mountains have thawed out a little. Though we won’t get to Canberra before the elections, we will be there to send a strong “NO CSG” message to whoever is going to be running the show for the next few years. This gives us time to organise the details of the trip, get some horses ready and do a bit of fundraising before we head off. If all goes well and we can manage some transport home for the horses, and ourselves we should be back by November.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
STEP 1 – Find Suitable Horses
First I have to gather some horses together from the surrounding paddocks and bushland. For a core group of 4 riders we will need at least 8 horses; 4 with riders, 2 packed and 2 lead unpacked. This will allow the horses to be rotated and rested (unloaded) in case of soreness. A few spares will have to be started in case of any problems during training, and so only the best candidates are chosen for the trip. That means we need 10-12 potentials to start in training. The horses will have to be big enough to carry some not-so-fit humans, quiet enough to handle some not-so-horse-savvy humans, and fit enough to carry people/packs on a 6-8week journey. Some of the horses are broken-in and ready for work, but others are being broken-in. Many hundreds of horse-hours will be spent preparing the team and building them up ready for the trip. Not to mention the riders.
Contact Details:
Mick Franklin
02 66494515 A/h
franklinhorses@gmail.com
