Donna Byrne rides her horse Jay as Tonto carries her belongings, on her trip along US Highway 301 in Riverfiew, Fla. Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009. Byrne, from Arcadia,Fla., says she lost her job and her home, but she's not losing her horses, Tonto and Jay. She plans to ride to Ocala then on to Texas. (AP Photo/Tampa Tribune via News Channel 8, Paul Lamison) AP Jobless cowgirl to ride her horse from Florida to Texas
By LINDSAY PETERSON THE TAMPA TRIBUNE
Published: Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 1:05 a.m.
RIVERVIEW - Donna Byrne lost her job in Arcadia a couple of months ago, so she decided to take off for Texas -- on horseback.
Her horses, Jay and Tonto, are about all she has left.
"I lost my job and my house. I'm not losin' these guys," she said. Without them, she would be on foot.
Hoping to reach Ocala in two weeks, Byrne made her way through Hillsborough County Tuesday, riding Tonto and leading Jay, who was loaded down with about 100 pounds of everything she owns, her clothes, a tent and some blankets. She planned to reach Dade City by Wednesday.
With her dusty white cowboy hat pulled low, shading blue eyes and a weathered face, she and the horses stood on the side of U.S. 301 in Riverview Tuesday morning. Six lanes of traffic whooshed by, drivers honking, waving and yelling out.
By evening, she was north of Interstate 4. Getting her horses over I-4 on the 301 overpass was touch and go, she said. Tonto spooked and stepped off the shoulder, forcing a truck to swerve out of the way. Otherwise, the horses have kept their heads.
Byrne, 44, was headed to a horse auction in Ocala, where she hoped to get a few days' work. Then she will move on to Texas, maybe Amarillo. She has never been there, but she knows they have ranches. And that is the kind of work she is looking for.
She is not sure she will make it, but she is getting help. Tonto threw a shoe Monday, and when Tonya Halvorsrod read about it in a story about Byrne on TBO.com, she called her husband, a farrier.
"My wife called," said Clint Halvorsrod. "She was like, 'Honey, you have to help her.'" So he cruised 301 until he spotted Byrne and pulled over with his mobile horseshoing rig. Byrne was shocked, but relieved to see him. He ended up putting new shoes on both horses.
"She has a long way to go," he said. "It's really hard right now; everyone needs help."
Byrne started working with horses when she was a teenager, at stables around Tampa.
"I can ride and rope cattle," she said. "I'm a cowgirl. That's all I've ever wanted to do."
Back in the '90s she worked on a ranch in Montana for a while. She also drove a truck, until she got too many speeding tickets and got caught driving with a suspended license.
She tended cattle in Arcadia until the operation shut down a few months ago, she says. Then she went to work in a plant that made butterflies out of silk. That was not for her.
"They said I wasn't making them right," she said.
So when she lost that job and lost her home because she could not pay the rent, she decided to take off, to find a real ranch. One day, she said, she would like to have land of her own, in Montana with mountains in the background and a free-flowing stream, a private place where she could live her own life and not have to deal with nosy, critical people.
She does not have any family except a brother she does not speak to. But she has friends, she said, who tried to talk her out of making the trip.
Source: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090212/ARTICLE/902120352?Title=Jobless_cowgirl_to_ride_her_horse_from_Florida_to_Texas#
By LINDSAY PETERSON THE TAMPA TRIBUNE
Published: Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 1:05 a.m.
RIVERVIEW - Donna Byrne lost her job in Arcadia a couple of months ago, so she decided to take off for Texas -- on horseback.
Her horses, Jay and Tonto, are about all she has left.
"I lost my job and my house. I'm not losin' these guys," she said. Without them, she would be on foot.
Hoping to reach Ocala in two weeks, Byrne made her way through Hillsborough County Tuesday, riding Tonto and leading Jay, who was loaded down with about 100 pounds of everything she owns, her clothes, a tent and some blankets. She planned to reach Dade City by Wednesday.
With her dusty white cowboy hat pulled low, shading blue eyes and a weathered face, she and the horses stood on the side of U.S. 301 in Riverview Tuesday morning. Six lanes of traffic whooshed by, drivers honking, waving and yelling out.
By evening, she was north of Interstate 4. Getting her horses over I-4 on the 301 overpass was touch and go, she said. Tonto spooked and stepped off the shoulder, forcing a truck to swerve out of the way. Otherwise, the horses have kept their heads.
Byrne, 44, was headed to a horse auction in Ocala, where she hoped to get a few days' work. Then she will move on to Texas, maybe Amarillo. She has never been there, but she knows they have ranches. And that is the kind of work she is looking for.
She is not sure she will make it, but she is getting help. Tonto threw a shoe Monday, and when Tonya Halvorsrod read about it in a story about Byrne on TBO.com, she called her husband, a farrier.
"My wife called," said Clint Halvorsrod. "She was like, 'Honey, you have to help her.'" So he cruised 301 until he spotted Byrne and pulled over with his mobile horseshoing rig. Byrne was shocked, but relieved to see him. He ended up putting new shoes on both horses.
"She has a long way to go," he said. "It's really hard right now; everyone needs help."
Byrne started working with horses when she was a teenager, at stables around Tampa.
"I can ride and rope cattle," she said. "I'm a cowgirl. That's all I've ever wanted to do."
Back in the '90s she worked on a ranch in Montana for a while. She also drove a truck, until she got too many speeding tickets and got caught driving with a suspended license.
She tended cattle in Arcadia until the operation shut down a few months ago, she says. Then she went to work in a plant that made butterflies out of silk. That was not for her.
"They said I wasn't making them right," she said.
So when she lost that job and lost her home because she could not pay the rent, she decided to take off, to find a real ranch. One day, she said, she would like to have land of her own, in Montana with mountains in the background and a free-flowing stream, a private place where she could live her own life and not have to deal with nosy, critical people.
She does not have any family except a brother she does not speak to. But she has friends, she said, who tried to talk her out of making the trip.
Source: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090212/ARTICLE/902120352?Title=Jobless_cowgirl_to_ride_her_horse_from_Florida_to_Texas#