Kathleen Dodds cozies up to her two photogenic horses, Mystic, at right, and Mystic’s daughter, Delightful, on a recent stop over at the 4H corral north of Frontier. She has been traveling on horseback from Oregon since May 14 and plans to arrive in New Jersey in October, hopefully setting a world record as the first woman to travel on horseback from coast to coast entirely alone. GAZETTE PHOTO/Kay Murphy Fatheree

As a little girl, Kathleen Dodds of Sherwood, Oregon had a dream. Now, at the age of 45, Dodds is fulfilling that dream, one that she hopes will break a world record.

Dodds decided to take her journey years ago. As an adult, she became a horse trainer, and 15 years ago, when she was given a horse, a small, white mare named Strip, she began plotting her journey.

“I would plan it and then something would come up,” Dodds said.

Then, three years ago, her trip was postponed once again. She was diagnosed with cancer and had a surgery to remove a large cancerous tumor.

“I am cancer-free now, but it made me kinda sit up and decide to go on my trip, and I just decided that this was the summer,” Dodds said.

Then, one month before leaving on her trek, Strip took ill and couldn’t be ridden for a month.

She decided to not postpone her trip once again and ended up with two horses on loan from a good friend.

Dodds’ journey began in Oregon City, Oregon on May 14. She has been on the road every day since, averaging about 25-30 miles per day.

When she arrived in Cokeville, she encountered some of the Daytons who took her under her wing for several days.

Late on Monday evening, Dodds rode into town where she pitched her tent at the 4H arena and found a place to corral her horses, Mystic, and Mystic’s daughter, Delightful, two Appaloosas, her only companions on her trek cross country.

If Dodds completes her journey by arriving in New Jersey the end of October, she will fulfill her dream of being the first woman to ride from the West Coast to the East Coast on horseback totally alone, without any company other than her two horses. She has no one traveling along behind her in a trailer, no one traveling ahead of her to the next location. She is totally devoid of human traveling companions.

However, Dodds has had tremendous human help along the way, and lots of it.

“I’ve been relying on the kindness of strangers,” Dodds said.

Dodds has a friend who has been making arrangements via phone and email for places in which she can pitch her tent and corral her horses on her stops.

Many times, when people find out the details of her mission, they will offer her a hot meal, a place to shower, laundry facilities, a roof over her head, hay for her horses, and a nice bed in which to rest.

“I had lost my faith in people,” Dodds said. “I have met a lot of really good people.”

Dodds has found that residents of small towns are especially eager to help out.

“I started finding out as soon as I left the big cities, that everybody was wonderful, willing to help,” she said. “People are so nice.”

As she approached one particular small community in Oregon, someone recommended that she talk to a lady named Jody Foss, a horsewoman who was one of the original long riders, and who has written several books on the riding. Dodds was given directions to the Foss residence and set out to find the ranch, which was at the other end of the tiny town. The next person who heard her story recommended that she talk to the same lady, and so it was with every person she encountered at every stop she made while on her way to the Foss residence.

When she got to the opposite end of town, a man pulled up in a vehicle, rolled down the window, and called out, “Are you Kathleen?”

She hesitantly said, “Yes.”

The man called out that he was Foss’s husband and he had heard her whole story before she arrived at their house. Word of her arrival had spread from one end of town to the other faster than she could ride it on horseback!

The couple took Dodds in for the evening, fed her and took care of her horses. In addition, Jody called ahead to the next five towns Dodds was to visit and made lodging and corral arrangements for her in those next five locales.

Local residents have jumped on the bandwagon as well since Dodds’ arrival in Kemmerer by providing rides to and from her campsite and providing a cold beverage or two.

Riding in the hot sun day after day after day, and only eating one meal a day if lucky, has brought about another positive result for Dodds in that she has lost over 40 pounds since beginning her trek.

“This is a good weight loss program,” Dodds joked.

Even with all the positives, Dodds has had her share of difficult days. The saddest to date was when her dog of 12 years old, a heeler who started out on the journey with her died very suddenly of a heart attack just two and a half weeks into her trek.

“I had had him since he was six weeks old,” Dodds said. “That was definitely one of the worst moments.”

Dodds will most likely leave town on Thursday or Friday and head to her next stop, Rock Springs, and will continue eastward through Wyoming, then Nebraska and then Missouri and on to her final destination. She hopes the residents out East will be just as friendly as those she has encountered thus far out West.

Dodds is keeping a journal and maintains a blogspot which she updates as often as possible. When her journey is complete, she plans on writing a book on her adventures.

Interested persons may keep track of Dodds’ progress by visiting her blog at: youmightthinkthisiscrazy @blogspot.com.

Maybe we’ll read about Dodds in the big city newspapers some day in the near future, and maybe we’ll read about her accomplishment in the Guinness Book of World Records. And who knows? Maybe we’ll read about the residents of Kemmerer, Diamondville and Cokeville in Dodds’ book as being some of the kindest in the country!

For the complete article see the 07-29-2010 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 07-29-2010 paper.