Untacked

52 w i n t e r 2 014 U n tac k e d coVEr storY After running out of money and gas with her trailer full of horses near Reno, Nev., at age 30, Lynn Lloyd found her calling in the desert. "I looked around and thought, 'I have to hunt here,' " she recalls. she began with one horse, a 21-year-old Arabian- Quarter horse named sielem who'd been given to her by a friend, and her beloved Collie mix, puddles. she had rescued the puppy before leaving england, where she found him discarded in a box as the sole survivor in a litter of seven. it didn't take long—only until she reached ohio— for her to realize that even though she was traveling light, she needed another horse to carry her pack. so she switched horses, to a oroughbred/Arabian cross named Bojangles, and she added a pack pony. And a tent. "one of the most interesting things was that there was a religious bent to the whole thing," lloyd recalls of the adventure. "people were always asking me if i was a Christian and giving me Bibles and religious literature. "What do you do with a bunch of Bibles when you're trying to travel light?" she asks, laughing. "so every night i would start my campfire with Bibles. i always was sure to say, 'ank you, god,' and i'm sure he or she didn't mind. But you feel a little guilty, in the moment, tearing up the Bible." But lloyd needed paper, and paper was somehow, someway, always provided. "i'm very spiritual but have no particular religious affiliations," she explains. "i always say i go to church every day, because i'm out here in all this. "i also think, scientifically, everything changes form," lloyd continues. "Water is our best example. snow, ice, steam and the liquid we drink. to me, it's right there in front of us, every day. so there's a little bit of science involved in my belief, too. nothing goes away. i feel spirits around me all the time. i can feel them, and i think they guide us. i think everybody is born hardwired, and then your environment has a lot do with how you end up being."

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