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48 w i n t e r 2 014 U n tac k e d coVEr storY "It was better than college," says Lynn Lloyd, shown here in a local newspaper clipping aboard her horse Sielem and with her dog Puddles, of her experience riding solo across the country at age 23. "I spent at least 50 percent of my nights in people's homes. You're a girl with a horse and a dog—there's nothing threatening about that, and what I learned is that people want to be part of the adventure, so they'd invite me in." marys ("give yourself a strong pour, baby! it'll make it more fun!" she tells me) and sitting on wooden bench displaying the pokerworked phrase, "hounds in the ken- nel, horses tied short. let's toast the staff for a great day of sport," one of several on the property gifted to her by a friend. it's a world away from the ramshackle farm near the delaware Water gap where lloyd grew up in a family with little money and even less interest in horses. "of the five of us children, i was the only one who was horse crazy. i came out of my mother this way. it was hardwired," she says with a shrug of her shoulders. despite money being tight, lloyd's parents surprised her with a pony on her third Christmas, ordered from the sears, roebuck and Co. catalogue. "it was a yearling—a yearling stud pony! Because it was cheaper, and they didn't have to operate on the..." she explains, gesturing toward her groin. "it came with a little red saddle with a chrome horn and a curb bit. my dad picked it up in a u-haul trailer. "e fact that i survived it, well..." she trails off, shak- ing her head, then lights a cigarette. "his name was spotty, because i was what, 3?" she chuckles. "At that time you're learning how to read, and i think the first book i ever looked at was see spot run, so that's about all i had in my vocabulary to name a pony or anything." lloyd would continue to be what she calls a "back- yard rider" until her graduation from high school in 1968. "in my family, you get out of high school, you bet-

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