It is a long way to Alaska at four kilometres an hour.

Olivia Cazes, a 30-year-old from Armagh, Que., is attempting to become the first woman to travel solo on horseback along the transcontinental Pan-American Highway.

The route stretches roughly 26,000 kilometres from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, crossing two continents and 14 countries. So far, Cazes has completed 3,415 kilometres and reached Chichinales, Argentina.

She set out early last year and estimates the trip could take as long as seven years by horse. “We’re travelling at four kilometres an hour,” Cazes told The Current host Matt Galloway.

Cazes said the idea came from a desire to connect with people and learn from different cultures. She also said it grew from a lifelong bond with horses after being raised on a horse farm.

“I was sitting on a horse before learning to walk,” she said.

In long riding, the equestrian term for a continuous journey on horseback, only a handful of people have completed this particular route. The Long Rider’s Guild says Brazilian Canadian Filipe Masetti Leite began the same ride in 2012 and finished eight years later. Russian rider Vladimir Fissenko started in 1988 and finished after five years.

American rider Bernice Arlene Ende, known as “Lady Long Rider,” logged 48,000 kilometres over numerous shorter journeys. Ende died in 2021.

Cazes said travelling by horse gives her a different view of the route.

“You see pretty much everything. You see every rock, every animal, every tree, plant, person,” she said.

She is travelling with three horses and rotates which one she rides, which carries gear, and which goes without a load. Cazes said travelling with them every day has deepened her understanding of what she called their “co-dependent” relationship.

“I take care of them, but they [also] take care of me,” said Cazes. “It’s not like a vehicle, a bicycle … they’re sentient, conscious beings.”

Cazes began the expedition with a friend, but he returned home partway through because of health issues, leaving her to continue alone. After returning to Canada for the holidays, she resumed the trip in Argentina in January with her mother, Esther Dandonneau.

Cazes said the experience was especially meaningful because her mother, now 53, once imagined a similar life of travelling by horse, meeting people and learning about different cultures, but set those plans aside after having four children.

“What we did together in the last four months was doing some things she had dreamt about for the last 30 years and more,” said Cazes.

Her mother has since returned home.

On an average day, Cazes said she aims to cover between 20 and 25 kilometres, but adjusts the distance based on how the horses are doing. She said she shortens the day if they have not slept well, eaten enough or had access to clean water.

She said the trip has taken her across a wide range of terrain. In Patagonia’s sub-arctic desert, she described conditions as “cold and flat and very dry,” with limited feed and water. In the Andes mountains, she encountered frigid temperatures but abundant grazing and water.

Cazes said she values the solitude of the trip and the perspective it brings.

“You just see the sun rise … [and] you feel like you’re the only person in the world that it’s rising for,” she said.

She also said people’s response has been overwhelmingly positive. People often stop to ask what she is doing or check if she is okay, and many offer help including a place to stay, food, water or feed for the horses.

A few months ago, she said a friend connected her with a local family who helped transport her and the horses out of town and welcomed her and her mother into their home for 10 days.

“People you don’t know just open their homes to you and it’s just so, so generous,” she said.

Cazes said she does not see herself as exceptional for taking on the ride, but hopes it challenges assumptions about who belongs in extreme adventure and endurance travel, which she said have traditionally been dominated by men.

“I want as women to understand that we can [do it],” she said. “It is hard, it is challenging, but we can [make] it.”

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