White Horses on the Solstice

All the white horses (and some of the spam men).  
 
The idea to do a ride that visited all the chalk-cut white horses in Wiltshire came from an idle speculation as to wether it would be possible to find a decent off-road trail that linked them all up and just how far would that be.  
 
There are currently (visible) eight horses in Wiltshire (for more info see website www.wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk). There is also a designated white horse trail, but that is for walkers and takes a very convoluted route around the county. I used Memory Map to join them all up and found a reasonable off-road route that was approximately 55 miles from the horse at Westbury to finally the one at Pewsey. Then back to the start (or home) somehow.  
 
The initial plan I had was to get a lift to Westbury and possibly call for a lift home from Pewsey. But, with others on board, the plan expanded to complete the circuit all on bikes. So the distance now increased to a minimum of 75 miles. On the actual day we were five riders who (mostly) all cycled direct from home and with some doubling back and very minor route mishaps, managed to clock up 90 miles. I think Pete Williams did the most, riding from Shrewton at possibly 100 miles.  
 
The weather was ideal for a long hard ride - slightly cool and overcast, but with very little wind. The tracks were in very good condition too - hard packed and dry. I wouldn't like to do this in wet conditions!  
 
The horses themselves were quite a mixed bunch in size, shape, age and condition. Westbury is the oldest and biggest and in the best condition. Marlborough was quite small and very difficult to see as it was surrounded by long grass. The furthest from home at Broad Town was a strange looking shape (from our vantage point) and seemed to have lost it's head!  
 
We took photographs of each horse, but not without some difficulty as often the nearer you got the worse the view (from a photograph point-of-view) was. The horses are (obviously) carved on the side of a hill so some steep climbs were included in the ride.  
 
In order we visited the horses at: Westbury, Devizes, Cherhill, Broad Town, Hackpen (also called Winterbourne Basset), Marlborough, Alton Barnes and finally Pewsey.  
 
A leisurely lunch stop at Marlborough meant that we took around 12 hours in total - just over 8 hours actual riding time.  
 
This ride was perfect training for my TransAlp ride next month, so thanks to Nigel Sadd for mapping out the final route and leading the way, and to my fellow riders on the day - Dave Billington, Ken Snook & Pete Williams.  
 
Dave Robinson - 21st June 2009.

Westbury - early morning start	Devizes - first sighting	Devizes - Dave B & Ken	Cherhill - first sighting
Cherhill	Cherhill - Ken, Dave R, Nigel & Pete	Cherhill - Pete	Cherhill - Dave B & Nigel
Broad Town - first sighting	Broad Town - where's the head (and front legs)?	Broad Town - Ken & Dave R	Hackpen - first sighting
Hackpen - Ken & Dave R	Marlborough - it is there honest!	Marlborough - now it looks worse!	Marlborough - Nigel & very overgrown horse!
Alton Barnes - first sighting	Alton Barnes - yes, that's definitely a horse	Alton Barnes - Dave B - wistful look back	Pewsey - first sighting
Pewsey - that looks a steep hill	Pewsey - and yes it was steep!

Dave Robinson
added 24/06/2009