This 80-Year-Old Woman Rides A 600 Mile Horseback Adventure Every Year

Every year since 1971, Jane Dotchin packeds up her saddlebags for a 7 week adventure on horseback.

Feature type Video

Read time 6 min read

Published Sep 10, 2021

Base editorial team
BASE editorial team BASE writers and editors who live and breathe adventure every day. We love adventure storytelling as much as we love adventure itself.

Every year since 1971, Jane Dotchin has packed up her saddlebags for a 600 mile – 7 week adventure on horseback. Now at 80-years-old with just one eye, joined by her disabled 10-year-old Jack Russell Dinky, she climbs onto the back of her 13-year-old pack pony Diamond heading north from her home in Hexham towards the Scottish Highlands.

“I love camping and I love the countryside,” she says. “The more I’ve done it the more nice people I’ve got to know on route and I want to go back and see them again.”

Now with an eye-patch covering one eye with her other damaged by a branch, difficulty in reading maps means she sticks to the routes she knows. But still carrying with her all the food and supplies she needs for the self-sufficient journey – including a tent – she’s got no intention of stopping anytime soon.

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