I have started taking lessons with Katie on riding Willy. He is so very sensitive and supple. Its amazing being on his back and feeling him move. I definitely feel my issues, my crookedness, my lack of strength.
I am excited about where this is going to go. For now I am sticking with quiet rides and lessons. I was intimidated by him at first, we are getting over that. He is so loving and friendly. Different than a mare!
epithany = “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience”
I marked my starting point, by figuring out which houses I was near. Then took off south down the beach at a jog. I have not been running outside, but inside on a treadmill. When you start running outside, the first thing to hurt is the shins – ouch.
The wind was blowing in my hair, in my face, sand flying along….hitting my eyes, my lips. Running into the wind is hard, it slows you down, it holds you back. I trudged on, one foot in front of the other.
When I had run for about 30 minutes, I realized I had traveled pretty far down the beach. I turned to start my journey back – and zap! I turned and the wind was now at my back, pushing me along. I could fly!
So, the epiphany….my life and my struggles….I have been running into the wind for most of my life. I was fighting the most natural forces. On June 12, 2007, I was saved, zap! I was no longer running into the wind, but now the wind is at my back. I am no longer fighting the forces, but letting them carry me where I am supposed to be. Father God, I am so sorry it took me so long to get here!
Things have been pretty calm at home. The twins are both “out to pasture” for the summer. I have been thinking about what to do with them and have played with the idea of finding a good home for sister Whinny. I had a woman come over from Oklahoma to look at her. Whinny was wonderful, Katie rode her for me and she looked great. You can see the video of her right here:
We put a measuring stick up to her and she looks to be about 14.2 and 1/2 inches. Not quite a pony, not quite a horse. She is small, but standing next to her she seems large, she has good bone, very solid. She has really grown up this year. I digress, so I have been thinking about it. With a full-time job I can’t find the time to ride them and Isabelle and Notey. I have too many horses and I feel quilty about it.
John Wayne Haynes got to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He arrived, I think last week. Will have to get the exact date from him or his daughter Ashley.
http://www.thelongridersguild.com/haynes.htm
Its been 2 months since John Wayne Haynes passed through my little town of Senatobia, Mississippi. He is in Texas now, heading next into New Mexico with the final destination Santa Fe. I think from the comments being left here, and the stories I have heard, that man has made a lot of new and good friends. Its amazing what good old fashioned visiting and fellowship can do to people. The kindnesses, the giving, have all come from so many good hearts. I am in awe and amazed at how wonderful the good side of people can be. So many times you listen to the news or read the local paper and all you hear about it evil ugly stuff happening. Children disappearing, murders, rape, burglary.
It is so refreshing to hear from so many people who have been touched by this man, John, whom we all call friend. His daughter Ashley, I hope, is proud of her Papa. He is a unique individual who we are very lucky to have met and hope to see more of in the future. Keep the comments coming, we are all praying for John and his animal traveling companions.
Father God, We thank you for bringing this wonderful man into our lives. We thank you for looking out for him as he travels along on his journey. May we use the lessons learned from the goodness of our hearts, from the desire to see good things in others. Use us, Father God, to pass your blessings on to those around us.
An Old Irish Blessing
Last fall, John Wayne Haynes decided that if he was going to move from his home in Hudson, Mich., to live with family near Santa Fe, N.M., he might as well enjoy himself and take the scenic route.
And with an estimated arrival date around Easter, he’s definitely not rushing. Especially as his preferred mode of transportation is a 2-year-old Appaloosa named Misty.
“You can’t be in a hurry going four miles an hour,” Haynes, who passed through Van Buren recently, said in an interview Monday. “You have to kind of ease down, slow your mind down.”
After quitting his job as a butcher, Haynes left Michigan Oct. 2 with Misty and another Appaloosa, 23-year-old Harley, as a pack horse. Also joining him on the journey is his dog Sheila.
For Haynes, a good day means covering 20 miles. He relies on the kindness of strangers for shelter, and often meets people who know others down the road who can take him and his animals in for a night.
In Crawford County, he found a place to stay with Mike Moffett, whom he met through Byron and Celeste White of Van Buren. The Whites found out about Haynes’ journey through the Long Riders’ Guild Web site. The guild was formed in 1994 “to represent men and women of all nations who have ridden more than 1,000 continuous miles on a single equestrian journey,” according to the Long Riders’ Web site. While not sure of his exact mileage, Haynes knows he’ll be eligible for guild membership after he completes his current journey.
The Whites took Haynes out to dinner at Western Sizzlin’ Sunday night, and also introduced him to someone 20 miles to the west who agreed to house Haynes for a night. The Whites even bought a sack of feed for Misty and Harley.
“It’s been a great pleasure,” Byron White said. “You know if I was doing something like this — we have horses also — I would hope somebody would take us in like we had John here. I just feel like it’s the thing do to help him out and what he’s doing is a great thing, I think.”
When he left the Michigan, Haynes planned originally to take a more northern route through Illinois, Missouri and Kansas, missing Arkansas altogether.
“I got in mid-Ohio and the cold weather set in,” Haynes said. “That’s why I decided to scoot on over to Indiana and head south.”
After going through Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, he crossed into Arkansas about three weeks ago, and last week had to take shelter near Pottsville for a couple of days to ride out the ice storm.
He got back on the road last Wednesday. He likes to take a day off every five days of riding to let the animals rest, and planned to get back in the saddle again Tuesday morning to continue down U.S. 64 — horses are allowed on most roads, but not interstate highways.
Haynes has made two-or-three week trips on horseback, but never one that stretched out for months. He said he’s gotten a largely positive response from people he runs into on the road, and had only three negative encounters in four months of travel, including one in Conway where he said a man tried to sic his dogs on him.
“He told me, ‘My dogs are allowed to do anything to you they want to do; you’re on my property,’” Haynes recalled. “I was on the road; he considered the road his property.”
And he considers events like that minor in the grand scheme of things.
“That’s really nothing,” Haynes said. “I’ve met so many nice people. It’s really unbelievable.”
There have been some setbacks, though. A horse got injured in Indiana, and Sheila broke her leg in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Haynes even got stranded for eight days in Franklin, Tenn., because of bad weather.
He’s sometimes asked why he doesn’t take a plane or car to get to his new home in New Mexico.
“Non-horse people, that’s the question they ask me,” Haynes said. “Horse people don’t ask me that question they know why. Just about all horse people would love to take this trip.”
His trip through Arkansas brought another traveling companion: The Whites had a dog who birthed a litter of puppies about seven weeks ago, and Haynes will be taking one of the dogs along as a permanent reminder of his time in Crawford County.
“I was thinking I’d call him Rudy,” Haynes said with a grin.
John Wayne Haynes was sighted in Russellville, Arkansas this past Friday. Joshua, met up with him on a Wednesday and then went back looking for him the next morning and took some more pictures and visited awhile. John is doing fine, staying warm as much as possible. I asked Joshua if I could just reprint his email to me, its long but very interesting and I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Lisa, After playing with the pictures that I had taken of John passing through town Wednesday, I really wanted to get some more pictures of his in the country side. So, I woke up a little earlier than I normally would Thursday morning and headed west figuring that I would find him on his way towards Clarksville. I drove all the way to Knoxville without seeing him. I sat and calculated it for a minute and came to the conclusion that he could not have made it as far as I had driven since I had seen him the day before. So, figuring that he had stayed the night at someone’s residence, I started to head back towards Russellville hoping that maybe I would catch him passing back through.
I made it to London (just west of Russellville) and didn’t see him. Being that I work for a newspaper and should have been at work by now, I figured that I would stop at the local school there and grab a picture so it wouldn’t look like I wasn’t doing anything all morning. I went to the school, spend about 30 minutes getting a picture of some kids doing any experiment with magnets and then packed up in the car and started to make my way back to Russellville.
I pulled up to Highway 64 from the school, look to my left and who do I see? It’s John making his way towards me along the highway with the guy who had put him up the night before. What luck!
I got out of the car and told him that I happened to be looking for him for the possibility of a few more pictures. He said that he had noticed my car when I pulled up to the highway and said that must be the newspaper man from yesterday.
I told him that I only wished for a couple of minutes where I could get some shots when he was away from the town atmosphere. He said “do what you gotta do.”
John stated that he was going to make a short pitstop at the gas station just down the road. I told him that I would head over there and let him do what he needs to do. I wasn’t in any hurry.
So, he and Rusty (I think that was the guy’s name, if not, then now it is) rode to the gas station and I followed. As John went into the gas station, I talked with Rusty outside and he told me about putting John up for the night and the things he learned about John’s journey. After we had talked for awhile, John came out of the gas station and walked towards us. He was carrying three hot chocolates. He said that he didn’t know who liked coffee, so he chose “the safe route.”
It brought a smile to my face. I didn’t expect that. We ended up making our way into the gas station and sitting at a table and sharing a few thoughts on life and I listened to a few of their stories from when they were a little younger.
About 25 minutes had passed and John figured that he had better start making his way west again. He figured that he would make it to Lamar by nightfall. He thanked Rusty for a place to sleep and started west again. Before he got going, I told him that I would like to get some pictures of him just outside of town, away from all these buildings. So, I drove ahead about a mile and picked a spot for a few portraits.
He came riding up finally, so I hurried and got several pictures. It was something that I would have like to have had more time to try different things with pictures, but I didn’t want to keep him. After about five minutes worth of pictures, I thanked him for his time and wished him luck on the rest of his trip.
I have attached several pictures that I took. Some of them are the same picture, but I was messing around in Photoshop and did some different things to a few of the pictures. Hope you like them. I don’t know if you have any contact information for any of his family because I was wanting to send them some of the pictures for them to have.
-Joshua
Photo Credit: Joshua Mashon
Hope you enjoy thanks Joshua for the info on John! Please keep an eye out for him and if you see him write me and let me know how he is doing and how far he has traveled. Thanks.
Lisa
Photo Credit: Joshua Mashon
We got to ride yesterday. It was awesome, the day was cold, but not so cold you couldn’t breathe. The sun was out and the colors were crisp, golds, browns, greens, blues…..
John Wayne Haynes has been spotted in Cabot, Arkansas. He has traveled about 182 miles since he left us in Senatobia. Here is the link to the local paper in Cabot and their story.
http://www.cabotstarherald.com/
We all wish you the best of journey’s John! God Bless!
Quotes and information about John:
“I like to be on the road most days by 8:30 (a.m.) or so.”
John Wayne Haynes, 55, is moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico. But he’s not using a U-Haul to move his belongings. John Wayne, as he’s called by most folks, is moving pretty much the same way the “real” John Wayne might have moved – on horseback with a pack horse coming along behind him. His faithful companion, blue heeler Sheila, trots along at the horses’ heels, as the foursome move steadily on down the road. Haynes is riding 2-year-old Misty and leading “the old man back there,” Harley, who is 23 and serving as his pack horse. The horses are both leopard-spotted Appaloosas. He left Hudson, Michigan, on October 2, 2008, and he’s hoping to arrive in Santa Fe by Easter – April 12 this year. “I decided to make an adventure out of relocating. I quit my job at Bob Evans, where I was a sausage maker and butcher, sold everything I had and headed out,” he said. “My youngest son recently graduated from high school, all my kids are grown and settled, so…” John Wayne has three children, two daughters, one 30 and one 26 and his son, who was 19 on January 3. He talked about his adventure with his children and while they were sad about him leaving, they came around.
Here is an older post from October when he first started out: http://www.middletownjournal.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/10/22/hjn102308horseback.html
And a link to a blog mentioning John: http://meredithmanor.blogspot.com/2009/01/john-wayne-haynes.html
TheCabin.net: http://thecabin.net/stories/012209/loc_0122090006.shtml
I have been trying to collect together all of the information I can find on John, some of these links are to local newspapers and they do not keep their stories up forever. If you find a link is no longer working, please let me know. Thanks. Enjoy!
Just talked to Wiley Roy, he had been on the phone with John Wayne Haynes. Wanted me to post to the blog that John is doing fine, he is in Helena, Arkansas. I think he is hunkered down because of the cold rainy weather….
A few more links about John:
http://www.southreporter.com/john_wayne_haynes.html
http://www.sidneydailynews.com/main.asp?SectionID=97&SubSectionID=243&ArticleID=193631
