And photographs, if you have any.
Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Bernice Ende
She went to her nephew's wedding. On horseback. All 1,200 miles.
Bernice Ende could have made the 1,200-mile trip from
her home in Trego, Mont. to Minnesota for her nephew’s
August Waconia wedding in any number of ways. She could
have flown. She could have driven. She even could have
taken the train.
But instead of using any of those modes of transportation, Ende opted to ride her horse.
Bernice Ende (left) with host Rayma Smith
and horses Hart and Essie Pearl >>
This is the fourth such ride the Minnesota native has embarked on. When she returns to Montana at the end of the year, the 50-plus lady long-distance rider will have logged 16,000 total miles in six years – 6,000 alone in her current ride.
“It’s so remarkable to see the world from the back of a horse,” she said, with a satisfied smile peeking out from beneath her straw hat, the lines on her face tanned from endless days in the sun.
Ende began her journey to Minnesota in March 2009, striking out from the northwest corner of Montana with three travel companions – Hart, an American Paint Horse; Essie Pearl, a Norwegian Fjord horse; and Claire, their canine mascot of an “unknown breed.”
The quartet rode into Rayma Smith’s farm in Dahlgren Township at the end of last month. Smith, a member of Carver County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse, didn’t personally know Ende when she offered her a place to stay, but she knew of her.
“I just wanted to meet her,” explained Smith.
After just a few days together, the two women who share a love of horses, were already laughing together like old friends.
“You’re living in the past,” said Smith enviously to Ende. “I think it’s adventurous to get in the car and drive a few states away.”
Smith cannot get enough of Ende’s tales from the saddle, though she admits that she might only make it two days on such a trip. Ende acknowledges that the notion of a woman traveling thousands of miles on a horse really seems to pique people’s interest.
“That image is very powerful,” she said. “It’s romantic. It’s legendary.”
For Ende, long riding represents freedom.
“It’s a reminder to follow your passion,” she said.
Ende first toyed with the notion of riding a horse off into the sunset many years ago while standing atop a mountain looking out onto the vast landscape before her.
“I was at the end of my teaching career and it was an idea that came floating into my head,” the former ballet instructor said. “I thought, ‘I could take these two horses and go.’”
It became an idea Ende had a hard time shaking.
“A hundred excuses came rushing in, but it screamed at me,” she said, her hands gesturing wildly to illustrate the force of the idea. “There was no peace. Something kept telling me to do it.”
She hatched a plan to visit her older sister and began plotting out her route from Trego to Albuquerque. For nine months, Ende pored over the maps that covered the walls, ceilings and floors of her home. She carefully considered how the seasons would affect her ride and made sure she could find plenty of fresh water and foliage along the way.
“I routed every step,” she said.
Then came the time to muster up some courage and tell her sister about her plans.
“She thought I was crazy,” she recalled, but Ende was not deterred.
“I put blinders on,” she said.
If there was one thing Ende is comfortable with, it’s riding horses.
“I was riding before I could walk,” she said, noting her childhood on a farm in Rogers. “We had a pony in our front yard growing up. It was my reality.”
But nothing could prepare her for the arduous road ahead of her as she set out for New Mexico.
“I cried the day I left,” she said. “I cried for a good part of that trip.”
Eventually, she arrived in Albuquerque. Her back ached
from spending too many hours in the saddle and sleeping
on a tarp in ditches alongside the road.
“I can’t believe I made it,” she said, shaking her head at the still-vivid memories.
Despite the hardships she encountered, something in Ende wouldn’t let her first long ride also be her last.
“I fell in love with it,” she said.
After Ende returned to Trego with more than 2,000 miles under her belt, she was invited to join the Long Riders Guild, an international organization of equestrian explorers. Today, she’s aiming to become the “best long rider that ever lived.”
Ende gives both scheduled and impromptu talks about long riding on her journeys. The talks, along with donations, help her fund her trips.
“There’s such freedom,” she said of long riding. “I’ve thought about it – I could live in a nice house, but I feel so privileged to do what I do. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.”
Ende said that long riding is exciting, challenging and interesting.
“It satisfies me,” she said. “There’s such contentment.”