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Texas-Bound Cowgirl Now In Mississippi

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By LINDSAY PETERSON

lpeterson@tampatrib.com

Published: April 2, 2009

Two states down, two to go.

Cowgirl Donna Byrne crossed from Alabama into Mississippi this week on her horseback trek from Florida to Texas.

She spent Tuesday night in Laurel, Miss., after a 20-mile day on U.S. 84. She and her two horses, Tonto and Jay, are in good shape. "Just tired," she said by cell phone the night before.

She's still attracting attention everywhere she goes, riding Jay and leading Tonto, who carries a saddlebag filled with her clothes, a tent and other supplies.

Byrne, 44, started out in Arcadia about nine weeks ago. She'd lost her job working on a small ranch. Then she lost her home when she couldn't pay rent. Determined to hang onto her two horses, she loaded them up and headed out.

She'd never been to Texas, but it seemed like the place to go to find a steady ranch job, Byrne said. She'd started riding and working with horses when she was in her early teens and it was the only kind of work she'd ever seemed good at, she said.

As Byrne approached the Tampa area on U.S. 301, an informal group of horse owners who read about her on TBO.com formed on the Internet to keep an eye out for her. They began rounding up places for her and her horses to stay as they moved through Florida.

The support held up as she crossed Alabama.

The Dixie Horse and Mule Co. gave her a place to stay in Wicksburg, Ala., on March 19.

"Many thanks to Don Smith, owner of DH&M as well as his daughter Lori and "G". Thank you all so much for giving Donna a safe place to rest!" wrote a contributor to one of the blogs that popped up to keep track of her.

Later that day, the bloggers worked to locate a farrier to give her horses a new set of shoes.

"WE GOT A FARRIER!!!! He will be here at 8 in the morning," someone blogged from Level Plains, Ala., the next morning.

Following U.S. 84, she passed through Opp, Andalucia, Evergreen and Coffeeville, crossing the Alabama-Mississippi border Monday.

The Web site www.cowgirlsjourney.webs .com has posted maps of her planned route and asks people along the way to give her a hand.

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

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