Talk features stories of woman’s 2013 ride across Nevada on horseback
An avid equestrian with nearly 20 years experience, Samantha Szesciorka, her horse and dog set out from Baker, near the Utah border, to experience Nevada unplugged.
More than 450 miles and one month later, she arrived in Reno with a new appreciation for pioneering travelers who shaped the state more than 150 years ago. Her stories, images and insights are the focus of “The Nevada Discovery Ride: Pioneering in the Modern Age” lecture at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23.
Her back country journey battling wild terrain, wild weather, and wild animals took Szesciorka along U.S. 50 and areas to the south over 14 mountain ranges on public lands. Szesciorka said she wore out 2 pair of leather gloves just opening and closing the barbed wire gates along her ride from May to June 2013. Though she rode alone, she had a support system to haul water, and said she couldn’t imagine doing the ride as explorers had done, without such water resources.
Her goal was 20 miles a day. “I rode about two miles an hour in the beginning, but by the end I was stronger and faster and made about six miles in an hour,” she said. People, animals and crazy stories made the trip unforgettable, she said.
The ride was a fundraiser for the Wild Horse Preservation League. Her horse is a prison system mustang born in the wild and gentled by an inmate. With the aid of a tracking device, the team was followed online by people from all over the world.
Szesciorka is assistant curator for the Wilbur D. May Museum in Reno. The presentation is part of the Frances Humphrey lecture series held at the museum on the fourth Thursday of every month, shedding new light on the state’s stories. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Admission is $8 for adults, free for museum members and children 17 and younger. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 600 N. Carson Street. Contact Deborah Stevenson dstevenson@nevadaculture.org or 775-687-4810, ext. 237.
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