The Journey Continues

Journe Continues The

A

s our readers remember, Linny Kenney rode across the U.S. on her purebred Arabian WPTR Runnin Rebel (Ortalion x O Piaget by *Piechur), aka “Sojourner”; along for the ride was her good friend Walter

Rowland. We chronicled their cross-country journey in our June, October, and November 2010 issues. For those who’ve wondered about Linny, Walter, and Sojourner’s lives after the ride, we offer the following, submitted

by Linny herself.

by Linny Kenney · Photos by Melissa Wright

It was early in the morning, maybe just before 5 a.m. Some sort of bird that had the biggest vocabulary I had ever heard woke me up a little earlier than usual. I was glad to be up, though. Soj and I had a long ride that day and I wanted to get an early start.

I grabbed a mound of hay and grain and brought it over to Sojourner, who was now awake as well and excited by the sound

of the grain bucket. I opened the back hatch of the truck and got the cooker out to brew some coffee.

I had noticed Walter wrapped up tight in his sleeping bag when I first got up, but when I glanced over at him this time he was lying on his side with his head propped up on his hand watching me. His expression was different. Something was different.

186 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b OCTOBER 2011

Journe Continues The

A

s our readers remember, Linny Kenney rode across the U.S. on her purebred Arabian WPTR Runnin Rebel (Ortalion x O Piaget by *Piechur), aka “Sojourner”; along for the ride was her good friend Walter

Rowland. We chronicled their cross-country journey in our June, October, and November 2010 issues. For those who’ve wondered about Linny, Walter, and Sojourner’s lives after the ride, we offer the following, submitted

by Linny herself.

by Linny Kenney · Photos by Melissa Wright

It was early in the morning, maybe just before 5 a.m. Some sort of bird that had the biggest vocabulary I had ever heard woke me up a little earlier than usual. I was glad to be up, though. Soj and I had a long ride that day and I wanted to get an early start.

I grabbed a mound of hay and grain and brought it over to Sojourner, who was now awake as well and excited by the sound

of the grain bucket. I opened the back hatch of the truck and got the cooker out to brew some coffee.

I had noticed Walter wrapped up tight in his sleeping bag when I first got up, but when I glanced over at him this time he was lying on his side with his head propped up on his hand watching me. His expression was different. Something was different.

186 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b october 2011

“Oh! Morning!” I said, “Do you want some coffee?”

There was a slight pause. You know that second someone takes to just look, to just be. It was a moment.

It was our moment … the moment we fell in love, I guess. A moment that deserved a second of silence and realization and the answer to the coffee question would just have to wait a second.

“Sure,” he said with a sort of sly smile.

I fumbled around for the other mug and went about things normally, but in my head I was thinking, “What the? What? What was that?”

Later on that day I would talk to Soj as we clopped along together through the silent desert. “I don’t know, my little Sojer. I just don’t know,” I would say to him, watching his ear turn back to hear me. Then I would take out my voice recorder and talk into it saying things like, “Was I wrong about that look? I don’t think so. Should I talk to him? Oh shoot. I mean … this is Walter! I have to be careful with this.” I didn’t think the voice recorder would provide any answers for me, but I wanted to remember those thoughts. I knew it was something big.

My mom had told me to be careful about any “romantic involvement” with anyone on the ride.

She knew I needed every amount of focus and determination I could muster up to accomplish such a massive trek and I knew she was right. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of it. Sojourner and I needed Walter, and as wonderful as love is, it has been known to have — how shall I say — an invasive side.

I don’t know if things are “meant to be” or written in stone long before our arrival on earth, but one thing’s for sure, there was no stopping what was to come. Sojourner’s ears perked up and forward and his pace quickened right along with my heartbeat every time we would turn a bend and see Walter off in the distance waiting for us. It was as if Sojourner was saying, “Come on, let’s go. This is going to work.”

So I let him take me, often times at an excited canter, to the man I would marry.

Our wedding was on September 18, 2011. Sojourner was brought down the aisle to us with our rings tied in his mane. He was set to finish what he had started. Somehow that miraculous horse, the journey, the challenge, and the beauty of the whole experience allowed Walter and me to see our 187 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b OCTOBER 2011

120 guests watched as Linny and Walter exchanged their vows. The cake was a nearly exact replica of Linny’s grandparents’ cake. The topper reads “where two trails become one road.”

Left: With kisses and hugs goodbye to Sojourner, Linny and Walter head off to Italy for their honeymoon.

love for one another 12 years after striking up a friendship.

The wedding was perfect, but it came and went like a massive wave, pulling out just as fast as it crashed in.

“Just keep it slow and this moment will last forever,” young Mason Fyffe of Garrison, Kentucky, had said as he gave us a ride in his wagon pulled by his mini pony. We had ridden many miles, with many more left to go. An old soul for sure, Mason, maybe about 10 years old, offered to us his words of wisdom.

But the truth is, no matter how hard we may try to slow the clock, moments do come and go and as I write this I am sitting in a coffee shop reflecting on things that have passed. My new husband is around the corner at a bookstore and Sojourner is back at the house probably nibbling on grass with his little pony pal, Wicklow. My childhood dream accomplished, the love of my life married.

As the Baker’s wife said in Stephen Sondheim’s musical, “Into the Woods”: Oh, If Life Were Made Of Moments, Even Now And Then A Bad One--!

But If Life Were Only Moments, Then You’d Never Know You Had One. I suppose what she and Mason are saying is that not every second of life is going to whirl you into an intoxicating thrill, but that’s OK. When such a moment does come, be there. Fall into its mercy and let it stain your skin and seep into your soul. In that way it lasts forever. It’s your moment; and as time brings us and and takes us, there will never be a doubt that your moments were lived, not passed.

To see more photos and read Walter and Linny’s wedding vows, go to www.arabianhorseworld.com.

188 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b october 2011