“When I’m riding a horse, I feel like a cowboy, otherwise I just feel like an old man”. A statement made by an elderly gentleman who was riding on a horseback trail ride led by Tom Seay. Can riding a horse help improve your health, your outlook on life and enable you to reach inside yourself to find a strength you didn’t know existed? Tom claims that happens frequently to folks who ride horses on America’s trails with him where they learn to depend on themselves, each other and nature to endure hardships that ultimately create life-changing events for them.
Tom Seay is a very successful man. He began a profitable career in owning cable television stations where he hosted, directed and produced programs specializing in outdoor sports events. His knowledge of television and love of horseback riding led to an epic adventure; The American Transcontinental Trail Ride in 1995. He organized a ride from Atlanta, Georgia to San Diego, California in which 256 riders participated, 16 of which rode the entire 3,000 miles. This event led to a very successful cable show, “Best of America by Horseback”, which airs on RFD TV (Rural Free Delivery TV); a station dedicated to rural life in America.
So Tom is constantly organizing trail rides - sometimes through uninhabited, wild terrains. You would guess that he selects his riders carefully, ensuring that they are healthy, wealthy enough to finance their trip and with enough vacation time to complete the trip. However, his only criteria for riding is that they have the desire to go. For example, he once took an eighty-eight year old man with a broken leg who required mounting and dismounting assistance. On another occasion he took a man who was told by his doctors he had only weeks to live and probably couldn’t complete the trip and had no money to pay for it, but prayed that Tom would accept him. Tom did, the gentleman completed that ride and spent a brief time working for him before dying several years later.
A more recent adventure planned by Tom was the Mexico to Canada ride that he completed in 2009. Due to the great success of the transcontinental ride earlier, requests from ride participants from previous trail rides and Tom’s sense of adventure and passion for providing access to the beauty of America, he organized this ride. It took five and a half months and followed mostly old cattle trails throughout the west. He talks fondly of a female rider on that trip who was a pig farmer from Michigan, overweight and seriously doubted her ability to finish the ride. She finished the entire length of the ride and has become a spokesperson for the trail rides. Each night he observed her sitting apart from all the other participants. She closed her eyes to envision the day’s events in order to take the memories home with her. Tom says he always takes the self-doubters over the know-it-alls. The former always complete the task and the latter are always scary. In addition to the forty riders on the trail, Tom met with city, state and federal officials and private property owners to plan the trip. All vied to have the group ride across their property, stop in their town, and participate in their local parade, rodeo, etc.
The “Best of America by Horseback” cable show and the trail rides offered by Tom are the result of a family venture. Tom’s partner is his wife, Patricia, who is the producer, director and editor of the television series. Tom describes her as the artist of the partnership. She takes the colors he gives her and creates a painting from them. They met when she left the city life of Alexandria, Virginia and moved to Orange to be closer to her mother. Since she had television experience, Tom hired her to work at his station. He claims she worked for him for ten years without his asking her out because he was afraid she wouldn’t accept and then she’d quit her job. Obviously he charmed her, as he does most people, since they’ve been married for fourteen years. Pat says each day is an adventure living and working with him.
A 2010 segment for “Best of America by Horseback” was the retracing of the commute President Lincoln took from his cottage at the Soldiers Home to the White House. Lincoln lived at the cottage from June through November from 1862 through 1864. He wrote the Emancipation Proclamation there and last visited the cottage the day before he was assassinated in 1865. The cottage was opened to the public for tours in 2008. On this retracing, Tom was joined by the United States Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard and officers from the United States Park Police Horse Mounted Unit and District of Columbia Metro Police Mounted Unit. Tom will repeat this three-mile ride on September 18, 2011.
Toward the end of my visit with Tom at his farm in Culpeper, I was about to ask if he has dreams not fulfilled or goals not achieved yet, since he claims most people spend the second half of their lives making up for wasting the first half of their lives. Here is a man with tremendous accomplishments; he has led horseback rides from the east coast to the west coast and from Mexico to Canada, produces the most popular cable show on RFD TV, is considered a friend by prominent political and government officials and celebrities, and leads a life envied by many. I was curious what he thought he hadn’t achieved. Before I could ask the question, we were interrupted by his daughter in law, Becky, and grandchildren, Carly and Dylan. Tom who had been relaxing in his favorite chair during our conversation came to the edge of the chair, and encircled Dylan in his arms and engaged Carly in a discussion of an impromptu interview she had conducted on a riding trip to Belize. He talked about beautiful places and wanting his grandchildren to experience those places for themselves. He answered my question about his future plans. Carly and Dylan will have the rides of their lives with their grandfather, Tom Seay.
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