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The World Ride |
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About Us - Page 2
CuChullaine has spent more than thirty years studying equestrian travel techniques on four continents. He made lengthy trips by horseback across Afghanistan and Pakistan before leading the Karakorum Equestrian Expedition through five mountain ranges, thereby setting the record for the longest recorded horseback ride in Pakistan’s history. CuChullaine was thereafter made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. “During my travels, which have been hazardous, I have suffered grave illness, been brutally tortured and falsely imprisoned. Yet no hardship, no random violence, nor any act of deliberate evil has ever prevented me from setting out time and again for the far horizon. To call oneself a Long Rider is, in my estimation, the crowning achievement for a human being, as the term carries with it a definition which is much broader than any one flag, one nation or one language. To be a Long Rider is to state that one’s life is not about what we drive nor what we own. It is an on-going challenge to match one’s life to a term which forces one to set himself apart from the safety of the village and the defined path of others. The World Ride’s underlying message is one of equestrian unity and personal tolerance, not nationalism nor competition. It will stress the need for equestrian, cultural and scientific co-operation.” Considered the world’s expert on equestrian exploration, CuChullaine is the author of Khyber Knights, the thrilling tale of his adventures in Pakistan, The Long Riders, the world's first equestrian travel anthology, The Horse Travel Journal and The Horse Travel Handbook. A dedicated equestrian reformer, he is now working to establish the world’s first equestrian archaeology program.
A horsewoman from the age of three, Basha has participated in all branches of equestrian discipline, including foxhunting, dressage, and three-day eventing. In 1994 she was Russian interpreter for a scientific expedition to Mongolia. In 1995 Basha rode her Cossack stallion, Count Pompeii, from Volgograd to London, becoming the only person in the twentieth century to ride out of Russia. After riding the infamous Outlaw Trail from Mexico to Wyoming, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in recognition of her equestrian explorations. “In this emerging world of ‘Nanny States,’ people are reluctant to leave their comfort zones because of a culture of caution which urges them to wrap themselves in cotton wool from the cradle to the grave. While acknowledging that to conclude this journey successfully would create a world record, what truly matters is the ride’s historical resonance, because our journey is about individual courage, not commercial success. It is designed to demonstrate that if we can ride around the entire globe, then surely average people on everyday horses can successfully ride anywhere else.” Born in Switzerland, Basha is the Trustee of the Tschiffely Literary Estate, the legendary Swiss Long Rider whose equestrian journey has inspired seven generations of Long Riders. She is the author of Count Pompeii – Stallion of the Steppes. This is a fictionalized version, written for children, of her journey from Russia and is the first in a series of books designed to inspire “Little Long Riders” to climb into the saddle and explore the world. |
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