Samantha is a former U.S. Army journalist and television news producer. She now works as a museum curator and historian. Samantha moved to Nevada in 2008 and quickly fell in the love with the state's abundance of public land and wild horses. She adopted a wild horse in 2011 and the two completed the 1st Nevada Discovery Ride in 2013, riding nearly 500 miles across central Nevada to encourage wild horse adoption. Samantha is a member of the Long Riders' Guild and vice president of the Natural Horsemanship Association of Northern Nevada. When she's not working, Samantha can be found exploring the Nevada backcountry.
Wild Heart Mustangs™ is proud to be a media sponsor for Samantha Szesciorka's 2016 Nevada Discovery Ride!  A list of Samantha's past guest articles are below.  Samantha will continue to share her journey and stories from the trail with Wild Heart Mustangs™.
Other articles written by Samantha for Wild Heart Mustangs™:
March Issue - "On the Trail with the Nevada Discovery Ride"
April Issue -  "6 Tips for Long-Distance Riding"
June Issue - "Wild Horses Find New Lives Behind Bars"
July Issue - "6 Things That Happen on a Long Ride"

HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN
by Samantha Szesciorka


​This month, my adopted mustang Sage, my dog Bella, and I will begin a long distance ride around northern Nevada. The three of us will set out from the geographic center of the state and over the next two and half months we will journey more than 1,100 miles around northern Nevada to end in Reno. I am full of nervous excitement as the start day approaches. It’s been a lot of work preparing for this ride. In fact, I started planning almost as soon as I finished my month-long ride across Nevada in 2013. There are a lot of logistics that go into a long ride and this month I thought I’d share some of the behind-the-scenes details of our upcoming adventure with you.
Samantha and Sage...Happy Trails!
2016 Nevada Discovery Ride Route - click to enlarge map
The Route
There are not an abundance of official trails in Nevada but there is an abundance of public land, so it’s easy to make up your own route. That’s what I did! I spent a lot of time studying maps and scouting trails to decide where to ride. Essentially I picked my favorite places in Nevada or the places I thought would be fun to ride and then figured out how to link them. The route I’ve chosen begins at the center of Nevada and will loop us around northern Nevada counter-clockwise. We’ll travel across nearly 20 mountain ranges, through desert valleys, ghost towns, the Pony Express Trail and other historical trails, canyons, rivers, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, forgotten mines, and more. We’ll see cows, wild horses, antelope, coyotes, and maybe even an elk or two. We probably won’t see many people. We’ll ride through a few small towns, but the bulk of the ride is as back country as I could route it. The end of the trail will take Sage, Bella, and I into Reno - because there’s something very satisfying about home as the finish line.
The Support
It would be very difficult, if not downright dangerous, to ride through Nevada unsupported. I am very fortunate to have one support person to help ensure that we complete the ride safely. While I spend two and a half months riding around Nevada, my incredible husband, Ryan, will spend two and a half months driving around Nevada to assist. As the defacto pack mule, he will haul feed, water, and other supplies and rendezvous with me each day. So while I do ride alone, I’ll meet up with Ryan each day. While I ride, his job is to drive into towns to refill the water barrels, get supplies, and find us a place to camp at the end of each day. I’m a little spoiled - Ryan is also the chuckwagon and cooks almost all the meals on the trail! And in addition to being ride support, Ryan is also my emotional support. It would be lonely out there alone and it’s nice to have someone to share the exciting moments and frustrating moments with at the end of the day. With all of that, I think Ryan has a harder job than me! 
As the sole support person, Ryan plays an important role in keeping everyone going on the trail.
Samantha and Ryan have been busy packing supplies, including dropping off all the feed along the route.
The Day-to-Day
It doesn’t take long to settle into a routine on a long ride. For us the daily itinerary is wake around 4:00am, feed Sage, eat breakfast, tack up and tear down camp, and be on the trail by 6:00am. I like to cover as much ground as I can early in the morning before it gets too hot. Sage and I might meet Ryan mid-day for a water break. If not, we always meet up somewhere around the 20 mile mark. Ryan will ask how many more miles I think we have in us. If Sage and I are feeling good I might say we can do another two or three miles. If not, we’ll just stop. When we’re done with our miles we start looking for a campsite. Sometimes we’re lucky to finish the day’s miles in a nice place, sometimes we’re not. Either way we pick a spot and set up camp for night. Everyone eats dinner, Ryan and I go over the maps for the next day and fill each other in how the day went. There’s no roaring campfires and starry nights for us! Usually I’m so tired after the day of riding that I’m in the tent fast asleep by 7:00pm to do it all again the next day.
The Feed
I’m very paranoid about colic, which can occur of variety of reasons, but is more likely when feed is inconsistent or changed quickly. I’ve read too many horror stories about long riders losing horses to colic on the trail. For my own peace of mind I will be using the same feed from start to finish. That would not be easy to do that if I was riding unsupported, but since I have Ryan it will be much easier. I bought all my feed in advance and cached it along the route in places where Ryan can pick it up as I travel. It took a little extra work to coordinate all those storage places and we put some miles on the truck dropping it all off, but I feel better knowing the feed will be consistent for the entirety of our travels. It’s one less thing to worry about anyway!
Instead of a pack horse, Samantha and Sage have a "pack truck" carrying feed, water, and other supplies.
The Highs and the Lows
Every long ride is full of challenges and we’ll certainly experience some. I’m sure we’ll battle weather from heat to cold to dust storms and everything in between. We’ll probably have some run-ins with ornery bulls and territorial wild horse stallions. I’m sure we’ll get lost at least once. There will also be physical aches and pains, broken gear, and grumpy days. But we’ll take the good with the bad, and try to focus on each mile that we make. There will be wonderful feelings of accomplishments like summitting a peak, hitting the halfway point, discovering a beautiful hidden landscape, spotting elusive wildlife. Camp food will taste really good at the end of a long day and I’m even packing a few special treats to keep morale up. We’ll all get into a groove and coalesce as a team.
Sage and Samantha are staying in shape and riding in a variety of places to prepare for their upcoming ride.
The Mission
I started long riding because I wanted to have an adventure in the wild and bond with my horse. But I’ve been fortunate to be able to use my Nevada Discovery Ride project as a means to promote wild horse adoption, which is an important issue to me. I have people from all over the world looking at my website, following along on the tracking device, and awaiting updates from the trail. Sage is the real star of the ride, and he’s a great ambassador for wild horse adoption. I hope people enjoy following our adventure, but I hope people will take away an appreciation for wild horses and maybe even an inkling to adopt to adopt one of their own and set out on their own long riding adventure!


​Sage, Bella, Ryan, and I will head out on Wednesday, August 10. We should ride into Reno sometime in the end of October.

Visit my website at www.NevadaDiscoveryRide.com to keep an eye on us while we’re on the trail - I’ll be carrying a tracking device which will update our location to the website in almost real-time. I’ll also be posting updates and photos from the trail. I’m sure I will have some great stories to share with you upon our return. Wish us luck!
Wild Heart Mustangs™ wishes Samantha, Sage, Bella and Ryan safe travels on their long ride around northern Nevada.  Samantha has the "grit" to get on her horse and ride over a thousand miles to raise awareness for other wild horses and burros still in need of loving, caring homes.  There are over 45,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities according to the Bureau of Land Management May 2016 statistics. Maybe you can't adopt a horse.  Maybe you can't go on a long ride to raise awareness.  But everyone can go to Samantha's website www.NevadaDiscoveryRide, track her progress on this journey and show their support for her and these amazing wild horses.  
Samantha, Sage (her adopted BLM mustang) and Bella (who was adopted from the Tacoma & Pierce County Humane Society in 2007.)

Click on the photo above to meet the Nevada Discovery Ride Team

Looking for people who love to trail ride...

We love to ride and experience new places.  Sometimes close to home for a nice relaxing day...sometimes for vacation to explore some place new.  But where to go?  This is not always easy to answer.  Some people are fortunate to have a network of horse friends who can recommend a place;  other people may not have that fortune.  It is not always easy packing up your equine and heading for the hills, not knowing if there are facilities to accommodate you and your equine to your liking.  You do not always know the skill level of riding that is necessary when you get their either.  Throwing your bedroll on the back of your saddle and grabbing your saddle bags, should be fun and enjoyable!

Wild Heart Mustangs™ wants YOU, the reader, to write in with places you have been and can recommend to other people who love to trail ride!  CONTACT US and send photos of places you love to share with your horse, mule or donkey.