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Senior Star
Horseman Completes Visits to 48 State Capitals at
Age 70 to Help Children
 Gene Glasscock to be greeted at Ohio capitol on
Thursday
Nov. 24, 2005 - Long Rider Gene Glasscock at age 70
is about to complete a horseback journey of over 20,000 miles and three
years in his quest to visit every state capital in the lower 48 states.
He will arrive tomorrow at his last capital city – Columbus, Ohio. He is
raising scholarship money for the children of Paraguay and sending a
message to senior citizens.
On Thursday, he and his supporters will be met by
Director of Agriculture Fred Dailey outside the Ohio capitol at 12:30
p.m. A reception for Gene and his guests will follow in the capitol
lounge, hosted by State Auditor, Betty Montgomery.
Tomorrow he and his supporters will meet the mayor
of Columbus at city hall at 9:30 a.m.
Though Glasscock can reasonably be considered a
true citizen of the world, he is a native Texan, born in Farmersville.
He can trace his Texas roots back to the 1820s. He was surprised no one
from Texas state government greeted him in Austin. It was the first
capital where he received no official reception. He shrugs it off.
Gene visited capitol number 47 on November 2 in
Lansing, Michigan.
In September 2002, Gene, a founding member of the
Long Riders Guild, began a journey in Denver to follow the route taken by four
riders in 1912 who visited all 48 states. The Overland Westerners, as
the original group was called, began their journey from the state of
Washington. They rode a total of 20,352 continuous miles throughout the
years of 1912 to 1915, making them the first, and only, Long Riders to
accomplish such a feat.
 Gene was 67 at the time he began this trip, the
oldest person known by the Long Riders to make such a journey. He has
two purposes for making the trip and the first is to raise money for the
Philips Fund, a unique scholarship program that offers underprivileged
young adults from Paraguay the chance to attend Pensacola (Fla.)
Christian College.
Glasscock spent two years in Paraguay teaching
English as a second language and Bible classes to children. Hearing loss
in his right ear made it hard for him to continue teaching. He left the
country, but his thoughts often drift back to those children and their
parents. "It's easy to tell somebody you love them, but more often than
not it's just empty words," he says. "I've always believed if you love
somebody you want to help them make their life better if you can."
The second reason for his trip is to send a message
to an "often overlooked" portion of America's population, its senior
citizens. As he told the Long Riders Guild, "I know I'm older now. But I
can still swing into that saddle. So even if I have to ride a little
slower, I want older people to look at me and realize they don't have to
just sit on the porch and do nothing. I'm proof positive that they can
mount up, ride out, and still live life."
Glasscock is a legend among equestrian enthusiasts.
He is the only person on record to have ridden from North to South
America. In the mid-1980s, he rode 12,000 miles from the Arctic Circle
in Canada to the Equator in Ecuador. It took him two years.
That trip killed one of his horses and almost him.
The journey began with Glasscock swimming in the Klondike River after a
polar bear spooked his horse. It came to a successful end only after
brushes with armed robbers, exposure to political executions and
imprisonment by the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan civil war and weeks
spent hacking his way through the dark jungles that connect Central and
South America.
He rides 15-20 miles a day, although he's done as
much as 40. He stays with host families and has had to sleep under the
stars only twice. His trip was delayed earlier this year when he had to
pause for a hernia operation.
His initial mounts for this journey were George and
Frank, two six year old Tennessee Walker geldings named in homage of
George Beck and Frank Heath, Gene's predecessors. After completing the
first 10,000 miles, Gene contacted the Bureau of Land Management Wild
Horse and Burro Adoption Program for assistance in procuring two
mustangs to help him finish the journey.
Tosi, a black mustang gelding gathered in 1997 in
Lander, Wyo., was trained in South Carolina where he was used on a trail
program and an equine therapy program. Gene uses him both as a mount and
a pack animal.
Buddy, an eight year old sorrel mustang gelding,
was gathered from Adobe Town, Wyo. He was trained by inmates of the
Colorado Department of Corrections through a special program which helps
inmates improve their lives. After training, Buddy joined Gene in
Oklahoma.
In February, 2006 a wild horse adoption is coming
to Columbus at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fair grounds where those
interested and qualified will be able to adopt a wild horse. Gene, as an
adopter of a wild horse, is supporting the event to encourage others to
enjoy the challenges and benefits of owning an "American Legend".
Perhaps you to will become a "Long Rider," he says. Call 800-293-1781
for more information about the adoption.
Visit the Wild Horse and Burro Web site,
http://www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov/, for more information about
the wild horse adoption program and adoption schedule.
Visit Gene's website,
www.geneglasscock.org to view the map of his historic journey, read
his trip journals or make a contribution to his fund.
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