JEFFERSON SPIVEY

ORPHANED AT 3 ,  HE DREAMED OF BEING FREE 

HE BORROWED A HORSE AND RODE INTO HISTORY.

In a small, Dust Bowl town in central Oklahoma, a young orphan boy asked an old ranch hand a question that would shape his life forever. "Mister," he said, "what kind of horse is that?" "That horse," the old man replied "is an Arabian, one of the oldest and purist breeds in the world-and probably the best." "Why is that?" asked the determined young boy, who had learned at an early age to find things out for himself.

The old man, eager to share his knowledge, replied with seasoned confidence: "Because Arabian horses are refined and beautiful animals, Son. They’ve been used to improve every light horse breed in the world. They’re known for their stamina and courage and their fervent loyalty to humans."

The old, weathered ranch hand went on to explain that for centuries, the Bedouin tribes, of the Middle East, bred the Arabian as a family horse as well as a warrior. The Bedouins of the Sahara desert depended on their stalwart Arabians for survival. "These were their war horses," said the old man, "upon which they fought furious battles. "As the young boy’s eyes grew wide, envisioning such a scene, the old man continued breathlessly. "An Arabian could run like the wind," he said. Mile after mile, in the deep sand, under the hot desert sun, these horses gallantly pursued their masters’ enemies.

But they were just as gentle as they were courageous, he added. At the end of the day, the Bedouins brought their prized mares into their desert tents, to join the family. As the old man continued, his words were becoming etched in the memory of this young, impressionable boy, whose bleak existence left him starving for adventure. By this time, the old man was calling him by name. "Jeff," he said expansively, "Arabian horses were for rich people. Kings and queens owned them. Cleopatra rode them. The Romans prized them. And the great General Napoleon rode an Arabian when he led his troops into battle." The commoner was never meant to own one, he explained, as they were affordable only to the rich.

The grizzled old ranch hand, who was just plain happy to have an audience, had no idea how far this boy would go with the knowledge he gained that day. Who would imagine that this poor, young boy-with no parents and no prospects for the future-would some day ride one of these valiant Arabian beauties into the wilderness, and into the history books of modern America?

Who would imagine? Only someone as determined as young Jefferson Spivey. He was only 14 at the time. But young Spivey was already developing the character to become an extraordinary human being. The feeling of confinement he experienced in the orphanage instilled in him the passion to be free. Having been abandoned at the age of three, by a mother who was ravaged by the Great Depression, Spivey knew what hunger, hardship and loneliness felt like. But he was determined not to let it break his spirit.

By the time he was 11, he had run away from two orphanages. With the passing years, his thirst for freedom only grew stronger, spurred by memories of the old ranch hand’s tales. Always in his mind was the indelible image of those free-spirited Arabian horses, running across distant deserts. He often thought to himself, if he could own one of those horses, "I would fly like the wind and be free. "In his quest for freedom, Spivey began hitchhiking along the highways of the American west. As he traveled, he took on temporary jobs along the way: as a farm hand in the wheat fields of Kansas; a roughneck on the oil rigs of Oklahoma and Texas; and a cowboy, on an Oklahoma ranch.

Jeff’s wandering lifestyle eventually landed him in California, where he fell in love and got married. To support his new family, he became a cab driver in Los Angeles and rented an apartment near Hollywood. His days were spent inching his way through a sea of traffic on the freeways of LA, hemmed in on all sides by angry motorists and the stifling smog. Not exactly the kind of freedom he had dreamed of. Once bound for the wide-open spaces, Spivey now found himself trapped-a victim of urban sprawl. It was 1968, and cities and towns were springing up all over the country, replacing prairies and wetlands, with tracts of look-alike homes and shopping centers. Spivey dreamed of breaking loose, and seeing the rest of America before it was too late.

One day, as he sat in his cab, immersed in the heat and noise of the rush-hour traffic, that old familiar image came back to him. The wind in his face, the open frontier before him, and the powerful stride of that bold and beautiful Arabian horse. Suddenly, Spivey could endure his urban existence no longer. He was determined to experience the wilderness once more. He grabbed a scratch pad from the visor of his cab and began frantically scribbling down the skeleton of a plan.

In the days and weeks that followed, Spivey’s strategy began to unfold, but not without some painful decisions. His plan would mean being separated from his wife and child for sometime, together they realized that this was something he must do. While his sense of obligation tugged at him incessantly in the coming days, the call of the wild was stronger. And he began to put his plan in action.

He bought an old McClellan army pack saddle, hauled it home to their tiny Hollywood apartment, hurling it over the back of the sofa, as if he were gearing up to ride. The next step was getting a horse. And it had to be a strong one, with exceptional endurance. This was no casual excursion. Remembering the old ranch hand’s vivid description of the Arabian horse-its strength, stamina and endurance-he knew he had to have one for this trek.

But, Arabians were expensive. Though not limited to royalty in modern days, it was still a horse for only the wealthy. And Spivey was by no means wealthy. In fact, his only option for survival on this trip would be to live off the land. But he wanted the Arabian horse and no other, so the search began. Soon Spivey discovered that the world headquarters of the International Arabian Horse Association was in the nearby town of Burbank, Calif. He thought perhaps they could help.

With the determination of a man on a mission, Spivey managed to talk his way into an appointment with the executive secretary of IAHA, Ralph Goodall. At the meeting, Spivey spread out a map of North America on Goodall’s desk, with the route he had chosen. And he explained he needed an Arabian horse to pursue such a journey.

At first, Goodall was skeptical of Spivey’s plan-he even thought it was a bit hair-brained. But the more Spivey talked about the broader benefits of his personal crusade-the publicity it could generate for the Arabian horse breed-the more interested Goodall became.

Finally, Goodall agreed to help. He sent out flyers to all of the Association’s clubs, asking for someone to lend Spivey an Arabian horse for this epic adventure. The request worked, prompting George Rosenberg of Abbeville, South Carolina, to send a four year old purebred Arabian gelding, named "Mr. Sol."Spivey could hardly contain himself. That lifelong dream that nearly died on an LA freeway was now a reality. He was about to be free at last.

Although, he was successful in overcoming the obstacles of getting a horse and a saddle-and winning the approval from his wife-this was only the beginning of his challenges. He would encounter many more on his journey for freedom.

On his travels, Spivey had to catch, trap, and shoot wild animals for his meals. And keeping Mr. Sol fed meant roaming for miles to find good grass for grazing. Not to mention the constant challenge of finding potable water. Survival also meant finding shelter every night-from storms or wild animals on the prowl. Securing a safe place to spread his bedroll each evening wasn’t easy. Spivey learned early on in this trek that keeping himself and his horse safe and healthy would be a major challenge.

In fact, his dream nearly ended one afternoon-about two months into the trip. Traveling on a narrow ledge, high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, he and Mr. Sol were following a game trail. The horse began to slip and lose his footing, as the rotten granite crumbled beneath him. Spivey held his breath as Mr. Sol struggled for a foothold. With each movement, a few more fragments of rock crumbled away, falling several hundred feet to the valley below. In the critical moments that followed, somehow, the surefooted Arabian managed to use his powerful legs to end their backward slide, stopping with a rear foot off the rock ledge. Mr. Sol made a life-saving forward lunge and fought his way up the crumbling trail.

Spivey, shaken and scared, tentatively urged the horse toward a safe spot on the mountain, where he dismounted. There, he sat for sometime, feeling sheer gratitude for the remarkable strength and courage of his companion. "I really thought we were going to die on that mountain," he told me later.

Spivey encountered trouble many more times on this journey. But this particular incident on the mountain was the one that changed his life’s course and paved the way for many others like him. Perhaps it was the fear of losing his life that made him see things so much more clearly on the mountain that day. The distant purple peaks, the vast green valley below, and the endless blue sky. All this was something to be treasured and preserved. If only everyone could get a glimpse of this beauty, he thought, what a difference it would make in their lives.

At that time, the average American didn’t have this view of his country. Since there were no established trails through these rugged mountains, one’s only perspective was from the highways. While pieces of this land had been set aside as national parks back in the early 1900’s, no navigable trails had been established since then. And by the 1950’s, the country’s population explosion triggered thousands of new development projects across the nation. Even the national parks weren’t sacred.

Spivey thought about the bulldozers eating away at this precious wilderness. And all the millions of people who wouldn’t even know what they had missed, because they’d never traveled through it. Then he got an idea. "What if a trail system could be built in each state that would link these lands together." This way, people could ride their horses through the wilderness, from coast to coast. And at that moment, the idea of the Freedom Trail system was born.

Jefferson Spivey finished his ride across America in seven months, traveling 4,000 miles. And he returned to California a changed man. Energized by his adventure, he was about to take action to liberate millions of people like him. These people-lovers of nature, from all over the world-would benefit from his efforts for many generations to come.

Soon Spivey organized an expedition and secured sponsors to launch an investigation. His objective was to determine the feasibility of forming the Freedom Trail, an international trail system, linking Canada to the Mexican border. Spivey conducted the investigation and mapped out a navigable trail. Then he began to spread the word-on horseback. This time, he owned his own Arabian horse, "Najah," named after a good luck Indian talisman symbol meaning (In the Arms of God) and rode the width of the United States. With him, he carried proclamation documents, on which he obtained signatures from state governors and other local authorities in support of the Freedom trail system concept.

By the early 1970’s, Spivey’s tireless efforts had begun to bear fruit. Over the last three decades, many states have embraced Spivey’s idea and have rallied support from many sources. One example is the Colorado Trail Foundation, a non-profit volunteer group, which began work in 1974 on a 500-mile hiking, biking, and horseback riding path. The path traverses the high country from Denver to Durango, straddling the Continental Divide. It passes through eight mountain ranges, seven national forests, six wilderness areas, and five major river drainages. While the trail’s average elevation is about 8,000 feet, much of it is above 10,000 feet and many areas are more than 12,000 feet-well over timberline. The highest point is 13,334 feet.

Similar American trails are the heavily traveled 2,160 mile long Appalachian trail, The trail, which follows the ridgelines of the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States between Georgia and Maine; and Pacific Crest Trails, The Pacific Crest Trail follows a 2,665-mile route from Mexico to Canada along the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains, then down into Death Valley and across the Mojave.

The building-and ongoing maintenance-of the Freedom Trail system has been a labor of love, involving scores of volunteers from all around the world. These people, all of whom share a profound closeness with nature, have made a commitment to make it more accessible to others. Working in teams, these volunteers spend their summers, building, improving and maintaining this trail system. The work is strenuous and exhausting. But these volunteers return year after year, calling it one of the best experiences of their lives.

Little did anyone think-back in the Dust Bowl days of Oklahoma-that young Jefferson Spivey would amount to so much. Inspired by the strength and beauty of the Arabian horse, and driven by a desperate longing to be free, this orphan boy grew up to help a nation reclaim its wilderness. As a result, millions of people now travel the Freedom Trail system each year-on foot and horseback-finding their own sense of freedom in the great outdoors.

Over the years, many newspaper and magazine articles have been written about Spivey and his crusade. He’s also been featured on local and national television programs, and has spoken to numerous clubs and organizations. And most recently, Spivey has written a book about his wilderness adventures. Titled Wind Drinker-a name given to him by the Indians of Arizona-the book recounts his many travels across North America. Written in response to the "thousands of letters stacked in my garage," says Spivey, "the book answers hundreds of questions about planning for a horseback adventure.

Serving as his memoirs, as well as an instructional book, Wind Drinker includes sections on trip planning, packing, selecting trails, and picking the proper maps. The book also includes the names of ranch owners along the routes. The book also has information on tack and day-packing, medical care (Spivey had to pull his own tooth on a ride), the dangers along the trails, and how to safely carry guns on horseback. The book tells all one needs to know about embarking on a wilderness adventure. But Wind Drinker also makes good reading for those armchair adventurers who like to live vicariously.

Author’s note: I first met Jeff in 1980 and was intrigued with his story. I videotaped his accounts of his adventures for the Arabian Horse Legacy history library, whose web site is www.ahlegacy.com

Recently, Jeff sent me a copy of Wind Drinker, which I found to be very interesting. Many of my own memories of close calls on mountain trails emerged as I read his book.

A different kind of story 

Wind Drinker is a true-life adventure.  It is the story of one man who has done what no one has done.  Jefferson Spivey made his great escape from the modern world by riding away from it all on horseback.  While living mostly off the land, he went looking for the America he grew up reading about.  He started at the Pacific and it took seven months and 4000 miles to reach the Atlantic.  It was a first, one man, one borrowed Arabian horse, on one trek.  The National Cowboy Hall of Fame honored him.  That was just the beginning.  In 1984 he saddled up his own Arabian horse ‘Najah’ and rode from Canada to Mexico, down the Rocky Mountain chain.  It was another first, having done it both ways, West to East, North to South.  He was invited to South West Africa, where he rode across the oldest desert in the world. 

In between making other rides and raising a family, Spivey wrote a novel, ‘The Law and The Eagle’.  In addition, he has written for National Geographic, Horse and Rider, Defenders of Wildlife, and other outdoor publications.  He invented the knife he carried and designed the saddle he rode.  His patented Sabertooth knife has been featured on the cover of national magazines and is the only knife design that has become, in and of itself, its own trademark.  The Spivey Cross-Country saddle is the ultimate design for the equestrian trail enthusiast.  The company Jefferson Spivey, LLC. sells Jefferson Spivey Products. You can contact them at 1-405-721-4442,  jeffspivey@hotmail.com

A few shares in the production model Sabertooth knife are still available.

Spivey has finally gotten around to answering the hundreds of letters from all over the world by writing a book about his adventures.  Wind Drinker will fascinate anyone.  It will make you laugh, cry, and the story will inspire you so much that you will want to saddle up and ride away into a hundred sunsets.  But when you do, better order a copy of Wind Drinker for your saddlebag, it will come in handy on the trail ahead.

You can read  the  first chapter of his book by clicking here.