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c h r o n o f h o r s e . c o m w i n t e r 2 014 53 e environments lloyd experienced on her trans- continental ride were certainly formative. most of the people she encountered were friendly and supportive, but there were also a few scary moments that, she claims, " just made the adventure more fun." such as the time a man in a semi-truck blocked her on a back road, jumped out, grabbed her horse's bridle and tried to wrestle her into the back of his rig. "he just wasn't cute enough, you know what i mean?" she jokes. presence of mind and spurs got her out of that jam. As she rode away, she considered using the gun she'd brought with her to shoot out the tires of his rig but decided against it. at gun would come in handy, though, one night in Arizona. "my dog alerted me that someone was outside my tent," she recalls. "i put my gun in my pants and came out, and there was a mexican walking toward me. i don't speak spanish, but i understood 'agua.' But just the look on his face—i knew there was more to it than water. he was walking towards me with this grin. i pulled out my gun and noticed his two buddies walking my two horses away on their lead shanks. i said, 'i'll blow your f***ing...' " lloyd hesitates and looks at me. "sorry for the language, but this is exactly what i said to him: 'i'll blow your f ***ing head off.' At first i was scared, but then i knew exactly what i was going to do. he realized i was serious and yelled to his buddies, and they dropped the horses and all ran. at's how i got out of the whole thing. i knew i was in trouble there. "i would have killed them," she confesses. "And i wouldn't have told you the story. i didn't have to do that, thank god. it was interesting, too, how shaky i got after they all left, because i [had been prepared] to kill them." But on the whole, lloyd says the journey was the best education in the world. "it was better than college," she surmises. "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." e same is true today. four decades later, people travel from all over the world to be a part of the adven- ture lloyd has created in Western nevada, in that state's first—and only—recognized foxhunt. As e fates Allow following the completion of her cross-country sojourn in 1974, lloyd returned to pennsylvania to start a horse business, which eventually unraveled. "When the partnership went sour, i was going to The Red Rock territory is as vast as its conditions are punishing. Hunt mornings may dawn in the single digits with snow, as is shown here in the Nevada ghost town of Belmont, one of the hunt's fixtures, but the extreme heat and dry conditions can be even more demanding. sHeA eVAns PHoto GretCHen PelHAM PHoto

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