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Cowgirl Finds Support In Ocala On Way To Texas

Photo Provided By Cindi Perugino

Donna Byrne, right, and her two horses were provided shelter by Cindi Perugino in Ocala.

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By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 21, 2009

OCALA - Donna Byrne's horses are happy.

Settled into stalls at a horse auction north of Ocala, Tonto and Jay spent today resting and munching on grain. But they have a long ride ahead of them.

Byrne, 44, set out from Arcadia with the horses about three weeks ago. Her goal was Texas and she hasn't waivered.

She got this far with the help of people she met along the way who set up a relay of overnight stops every 10 to 20 miles. With luck, the network that's forming around her journey will get her all the way.

Cindi Perugino and Barbara Mackenzie, who live around Bushnell, set up a website to track Byrne's progress, cowgirlsjourney.webs.com. They're trying to pull together people along her path who might be able to give her and her horses a place to stay for a night or two, if only a pasture. Bryne's carrying her own tent and blankets.

Byrne's not sure what to make of the outpouring of support and media attention she has received since she started out, alone on Jay, with Tonto carrying about 100 pounds of her belongings.

Standing by Tonto's stall at the auction today, scratching his back, a man stopped to ask if she was the Texas-bound cowgirl he'd seen on television.

"I guess so," she said, looking at the ground.

"I think you got a lotta guts," he said.

Asked later if she thinks of herself as gutsy, she said, "nope."

She didn't set out on this trip to make a statement, she said. She'd lost her job on a small ranch near Arcadia and couldn't find any other steady work in the area. "I ain't got nowhere else to go and I want to get outta Florida."

She doesn't have any other way to go, either, except on horseback. She doesn't have a car, doesn't even have a drivers license after losing it because she'd gotten too many speeding tickets, she said.

She picked Texas because she figured she could get a good ranch job there, and the closer she gets, the more determined she is to get there. "I want to show that I can make the ride."

But it hasn't been easy spending every day in the saddle, she said. Banged up from years as a bull rider, she has a bad hip and back, scarred arms, too.

She met Perugino about a week and a half ago when Perugino read about Bryne's trek on a website for horse owners that had picked up a TBO.com story. Byrne was riding north on U.S. Highway 301, the story said, coming close to Perugino's ranch.

"My heart went out to her and her horses. I had to go see if I could help," she said. She found her in Dade City, going to meet another horse owner who had offered to help her. The sight of Byrne on her horse, with Tonto carrying everything she owned, all of them looking worn after so many days on the road, made Perugino cry. "That could be any of us one day," she said.

Later that week, Bryne stayed with Perugino for two nights before setting out for Ocala.

"She's a very honest person. And she's a very simple person. I'm glad I went down there that day," Perugino said. "It makes me feel better when I go to sleep at night knowing we're doing what we can."

Dozens of people have stepped in to help Byrne, offering rides, places to stay and money. A veterinarian even stopped her on the way out of Dade City last week to check out her horses, finding them in good shape, Perugino said.

Byrne has taken the money. She uses most of it for horse feed, she said.

People have criticized her on the websites that have carried her story, many saying she's a con artist just trying to get people to give her donations.

"I ain't doing this for the money," she said. "I didn't ask for those donations….This trip is my own business. I'm doing it for my own reasons, and I'm tired of people trying to cut me down."

On Monday, she plans to head out of Ocala and make her way day by day toward Alabama. There she plans to pick up U.S. Highway 84 and head west.

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

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