CLAYPOOL – Jake Harvath and his two mustang horses stopped for the night at a family farm in Kosciusko County Thursday during their cross-country journey for Year of the Mustang.
Harvath started his journey in Heber City, Utah, on Sept. 25, 2023, and is doing a loop back to Heber City.
“So we went all the way to the Atlantic Ocean in New Jersey, and we’re now on a different track to get back home,” he said.
Harvath has been through 18 states, including Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri, Virginia Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. He hopes to be back in Utah in mid-November.
During the Year of the Mustang journey, Harvath is riding two mustangs, Eddy and Denver, alternating between the two each day. He said they average about 20 miles a day. Thursday, Harvath said he rode a little under 20 miles, and Friday he was scheduled to ride about 25-1/2 miles and was going through Mentone. He is mostly using back roads.
Harvath said the idea for the ride grew over time. He was an apprentice horse trainer. When he was 16, he discussed going across Utah with friends. While the trip didn’t happen, Harvath didn’t let the idea go and the idea kept growing. By 19, he had a rough outline of this trip in mind.
He has been documenting his trip on his YouTube chanel Jake Harvath.
“That has been a great way to spread our message,” he said.
It has always been a dream of his to see the country this way and it’s found its challenges, but Harvath said it’s been one of the best experiences of his life. He was able to ride through the biggest ranch in New Mexico, which took him four days to get across. For three of those four days, he didn’t see another person.
Some of the hardest aspects of doing the ride is competing with cars. The further east he gets and the more densely populated the area gets, the tougher it is to compete with traffic. Harvath said, so far, he and his horses haven’t been involved in any accidents and he prays to continue that. He is very cautious what roads he’s on and how he and his horses are on them. However, there have been a couple close calls with vehicles.
When they rest for the night, Harvath said he and his horses are set up to camp in the woods somewhere, which he did a lot out west. When he’s transitioned into more private land in the east, he’s been able to stay with people, anyone who’s got an enclosed area for him and the horses to stay. He’s been able to find people to stay with through people following his journey, as well as talking to people along the way.
Thursday, Harvath was able to stay with the Colberts, who have a family farm with 15 horses.
Candy Colbert said she met Kosciusko County resident Ami Pitt 22 years ago and they have an amazing friendship. Pitt has been following Harvath’s journey and Pitt contacted Colbert about a month ago about letting Harvath stay with the Colberts. Candy said she did her research and followed his journey trying to get a grasp of what Harvath was doing. Candy said she thinks she has a good read of horse people and felt Harvath’s cause was good.
Pitt said she doesn’t follow a lot of social media, but she saw Harvath’s story and said it’s a great cause. Pitt said she started following Harvath on social media and then saw he was coming through Kosciusko County on the way back to Utah. When Pitt saw that, she said she started praying for his safety and his journey. She decided to help since he was in her back yard. Pitt messaged Harvath, saying he was welcome to stay in Pitt’s back yard. However, his route shifted, so Pitt made some calls to help out.
Harvath said the project called the Year of the Mustang is to get more people interested in adopting wild mustangs from the government. The Bureau of Land Management has over 50,000 wild horses in holding facilities that are available to the public for adoption. He said Edy and Denver are mustangs that were born in the wild and were rounded up. Now, they’ve been trained and doing “an extreme journey. And it’s all to demonstrate how hardy and useful they can be in these situations.”
He said it’s a very complex issue with a lot of different aspect, “but the main is that the population of wild horses in 10 western states in most areas doubles every year and they live in an environment that is very harsh and very arid. So a lot of them are eating themselves out of house and home and it can be a struggle for the horses living there. Also, it’s a huge strain for other species in those environments that are native, compared with horses that were brought by us over the last 500 years on this continent. So the government is charged with rounding up those horses to be able to preserve the ranch land and help bring a little more balance to some of those ecosystems that are suffering,” he said. “So that’s why the government rounds up the horses. The trouble is what do you do with the horses you round up?”
Harvath said the Bureau of Land Management has the Wild Horse and Burro Program, which has a number of ways people can go about obtaining the horses. Out west, private sales can be set up. Around this area, public auctions are set up. After filling out an application and qualifying, people can bid on the horses in those auctions. Anyone who has the facilities to meet the basic necessities of a horse can qualify.